What You Cherish Most
by ReasonableName
Summary: As two continents, Vytal and Gaia, come together for the first time to partake and compete in the Vytal Festival, a hidden evil prepares to reveal itself. With everything at stake, will the heroes of both continents be able to stop it, or will they fall with the planet? (Set after EP.16 RWBY, after FF7 events, middle of FF9 events. Pairings. FF7 and FF9 characters.)
1. Introduction

_**I do not own RWBY nor any Final Fantasy. **_

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The Vytal festival.

This continental festival between Huntsman and Huntresses attracted academy students from Mistral, Atlas, and even Vacuo to the kingdom of Vale, the place in which the event was being hosted this year.

The festival was dedicated to the cultures of the continent, celebrating this event with dances, parades and, more importantly, the combat tournament. Soon enough the streets would be flooded, foods from every region would be available and story-worthy events would take place for those attending.

However, this year was unique. For the first time in history, the inhabitants of Vytal would be welcoming the people who lived across the vast, stormy ocean, on the continent of Gaia.

It was a place of which they knew next to nothing about, aside from the one dusty old shop in a secluded corner of Vale that made no business.

During the festival, the combat tournament was for those who believed themselves skilled enough to partake, and the competition was gruelingly tough. It was said that this year the tournament was to be preceded by a new event; a mystery to everyone except the event's main organizers. Rumors as to what it could be spread like wildfire. From chess to "human pinball," they ranged from the strange to the downright ridiculous. Despite all of the speculation, not a single student could figure it out.

When Goodwitch told the students about the tournament she stated that it would go as it did last year, but with a major twist. They all remembered how last year went: solo 1v1 preliminaries, semi-finals, and finals. Her comment baffled them, and many wondered how a tournament could possibly change so drastically.

Among those brave enough to compete were teams RWBY and JNPR, who were eagerly chatting and planning their strategies inside of team RWBY's dorm room. While they've watched and seen footage of the tournaments of the past, they couldn't simmer their excitement at the news of novel events such as the "mystery event."

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"I hope I get paired up with Cardin."

"The best defense is a butt-kicking offense!"

"Gu-Guys, I don't think I can do it."

Jaune Arc was not a boy of confidence. His insecurities ate him alive and spit him back up, only to do so again. While, yes, his secret rooftop training with Pyrrha was starting to pay off; he couldn't help but feel nervous.

"I don't want to be seen as the leader who can't win in the preliminaries," he muttered sheepishly, getting glances from his team.

"Jaune, you're more than ready!" Pyrrha said to him, resting her hand on his shoulder. "I think you're going to do great." She gave him a reassuring smile; one that Jaune knew was sincere.

"Yes, Jaune, I've noticed your technique has improved," Ren inserted with a soft pat on the back, his monotonous voice contrasting his encouraging compliment. "Show everyone what you can do."

"Yeah Jauney!" squealed Nora as she jumped up and down. "If anyone can do it, you can!"

Pyrrha walked in front of him, looking into his eyes. "Jaune, you're a much better fighter since you started! I'm so proud of you," she sweetly said as she placed her hand atop one of his. Pyrrha knew Jaune would need all the confidence he could get, because the competition would be fierce and unforgiving. She would never say this to him, however; he'd just worry more.

"Thanks guys," Jaune said, blushing. "I... I'll try my best."

"If you get creamed, so what?" Yang yelled from across the room. "You'll still be cute."

Jaune couldn't help but look at the floor. _Why does she do this to me?_

Pyrrha gave Yang a stern look, traces of pink flushing into her cheeks. Yang noticed this, and couldn't help but feel a sense of ultimate satisfaction.

She, along with everyone else, knew about Pyrrha's crush on Jaune. In fact, the only one who didn't have a clue was Jaune himself. Even though Pyrrha's affections were clear, Yang enjoyed flirting with Jaune to tease Pyrrha and did so often. As Pyrrha turned back to Jaune to reassure him, Yang sat there and continued to casually observe them. She wore a smug grin, her arms folded across her "graciously endowed" chest.

Oblivious to the minor drama playing out, the rest of the students of Beacon continued to talk excitedly; their imaginary stories of battles to come grew ever more grand as the night grew older.

Ruby talked about putting Crescent Rose to work, knocking back anyone who stood in her way with the "crazy skills" her grandfather taught her.

Weiss worried about getting a fresh batch of dust for Myrtenaster. She paced back and forth on her scroll as she yelled at some poor soul, demanding her shipment arrive by the morning.

Blake didn't once look up from her book. She didn't have to speak about the tournament to get excited. Instead she did so by keeping silent and not letting her soon-to-be opponents in on her strategies, while making mental notes about those who were foolish enough to tell the crowd, namely Yang and Nora.

As each student thought more about the upcoming days, their excitement levels rose. Dancing, parades, the combat tournament AND a mystery event? It couldn't get much better.

They couldn't wait to represent Beacon and take on the other kingdoms of Vytal.

However, the group, save one individual, had overlooked one extremely critical detail; the people of Vytal were not to be the only competitors this year.

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**A/N Thank you for reading the introduction to my story. I hope you enjoyed it. Strap in, because we're going for the long haul. I will be introducing the Final Fantasy characters soon, they are some of my personal favorites and I hope you agree. I'm using characters from two FF games in particular.**

**This scene was to set the stage. I am basing this story right after Episode 16, and will try to keep EVERY character I introduce as canon as I possibly can. Give a review if there's something you'd like to see.**

**Shout-out to my beta reader DepresdMustache for editing.**

**See you in the next Chapter.**


	2. Lost

**_I do not own RWBY or any Final Fantasy. Depresd and I enjoyed this chapter, we hope you do too._**

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Airships cluttered the skies as they and large cargo ships piled up into the airports and docks of Vale, respectively. The people of Gaia who decided to make the trip along with the other kingdoms of Vytal were making their arrival.

Banners reading "Welcome, citizens of Gaia!" were hung above the streets, naturally accompanied by other signs welcoming the rest of the Vytal kingdoms to their magnificent city. It was around midday and the citizens of Vale were hurriedly preparing for the events to come in the next few days.

As the shopkeepers and event organizers prepared, a trio of misfits were taking a stroll, trying to locate where they needed to be on a map. Back in Gaia, these three were looked at as heroes. Here, they were only judged on their appearance alone.

A faunus boy with a prehensile monkey-like tail had his layered blond hair tied back into a short ponytail, blue eyes refracting the rays of the sun. His white sleeveless shirt under a short teal vest completed by blue Jodhpur pants. Two brown leather sheaths were at his sides, harboring long, sharp, curved light purple daggers.

A knight of medium height with a stocky build wearing silver knight's armor that made very loud clanking noises as he walked, complemented by a pair of shorts and a helmet featuring a white feather jutting out of the top. Even his shoes and gloves were armored. A leather strap on his back held his jade-bladed broadsword, the red and bronze decorative hilt glistening as it swayed to his movements.

A small, grimm-like subhuman; unlike humans or even faunus, he possessed a magical black aura which encompassed the entirety of his body. Simply put, he had no physical human traits whatsoever. Two bright yellow eyes glow underneath the brim of the short mages tall pointy hat, the end of which flopped down and trailed to the back of his head. He has a blue jacket, green and white striped trousers, red and white gloves and brown boots.

The three were sent out by the rest of their group to simply grab some food and equipment before the tournament, but somehow managed to get completely and utterly lost while trying to get familiar with the area. Given that the've never been to or even heard of Vale, the amount of time it took for them to become lost was still extremely pathetic.

They were excited for the festival, celebrating and representing their kingdoms. While parades and dances are fun, they, among many others from Gaia, also wished to partake in the combat tournament.

As the three walked and argued, they couldn't help but feel as though they were being watched by the people around them.

"Rusty, we're so lost."

"No we're not, you oaf!"

"Steiner, I think Zidane's right… I think we've seen that building before."

"Master Vivi, please have some fait-"

"Hey Rusty, let me see that map."

Zidane Tribal, the blonde haired "faunus," snatched the map from Adelbert Steiner, the knight, who at this point was fuming. Vivi Ornitier, the small statured "black mage," just kept to himself, trying not to pay any attention to the looks the three were receiving. However, Vivi was having trouble in doing so. More and more people began to stare; not so subtle whispers of, "is that a grimm?" could be heard clearly. While Vivi sometimes still received these looks back home, it was never as bad as this.

"This place isn't even as big as Lindblum. How can we be lost?" Zidane questioned, examining the map.

"The Princ-"

"She's a Queen now, Rusty," Zidane quickly interjected, giving Steiner a sly glance over the map. Steiner was not amused, and his jaw tightened in annoyance.

"The QUEEN," he retorted, "said to meet her at the 'Goodsprings Inn', for that is the housing she so graciously reserved for us." Steiner started to look around and get a feel for the area. Tall buildings, banners, lights- it was the scene of a party to be had. As he scanned the streets, he couldn't help but lock eyes with a curious onlooker. Why is that woman staring at Vivi?

He looked down at his partner, only to be met with the little mage tugging his hat over his eyes. He placed his hand on Vivi's back, causing the mage's yellow eyes to meet his as Steiner gave the boy a look of empathy.

"Master Vivi, does something trouble you?" he asked, "If so, do not hesitate to inform me!"

"N-no," Vivi answered shakily, "Nothing's wrong. I'm just tired from the flight."

Steiner looked at the boy with a slight feeling of doubt. Even though Vivi lacked human facial features, Steiner could just feel the pain emanating from the boy's radiant yellow eyes. He travelled all over Gaia with Vivi, and knew when his comrade was suffering. Though he didn't verbally express that he knew something was wrong, the expression he gave Vivi said it all- and Vivi acknowledged it.

"I-I'll tell you when we get back," Vivi whispered nervously after hesitating a moment. Steiner smiled, returning his gaze to the streets before him. Zidane was still so wrapped up in trying to figure out where exactly they were that he hadn't noticed the exchange between his two friends.

"She said it was on the border of the industrial and commercial districts... which is here? Wait… how can this crap even be considered a map?" Zidane turned the map all different sorts of angles trying to make sense of it, before letting the map fall from the front of his face to his thighs, trying to spot any sort of landmark that might make this adventure a little less frustrating.

"The Highwind dropped us off at the northern gate of the city, which would mean we're still in the commercial district. Cid said that the goods were to be delivered to the main hall where the rest of the airships went, which I assume is in the center, here," he explained, pointing at a location right above one of Vale's split rivers as he tipped the map in his friends' directions so they could see what exactly he was going on about.

"So, based off that… let's go… that way!" Zidane exclaimed, pointing down a random street filled with busy onlookers. Despite the confidence in his voice, the fact was Zidane was utterly clueless as to where he was actually leading his party. Both Steiner and Vivi were equally as clueless, so they really had no choice but to follow the monkey-tailed teen.

Zidane eventually ditched the map altogether. When asked why by an angered Steiner, he simply stated that they will "now be relying on his 'instincts' to guide them" as he folded the map and put it into his back pocket.

Without the map obscuring his vision, he could easily read the faces of those who were discriminating against them. Zidane soon noticed the stares and angry looks Vivi was receiving; however Vivi wasn't the only one getting stared down. He was too. Zidane quickly rushed over to Vivi's side, telling him, "Don't let these people get to you. They're not worth it."

"Th-thanks, Zidane. I'm not letting them, it's just weird being back to stage zero..." Vivi said quietly before returning his gaze to the ground.

"Do you think this place has shops from Gaia? I h-have some things I wanna get before the tournament," he then asked, still mortified at the gasps and looks he was bringing in.

"I haven't seen a market that sells such items, Master Vivi. I've yet to even spot a damned Moogle!" Steiner pointed out.

"Steiner's right," Zidane remarked, placing a curious finger on his chin. "If they did, we would have seen it, or at least heard of it. I don't think there's any harm in looking harder though!"

Deciding they'd search further, they carried on, walking the brown cobblestone streets of Vale in search of a store bearing items of their home continent.

They were so busy looking up at signs and directions that Vivi stumbled on the curb, bumping into one of the many shopkeepers that littered the busy street.

"Hey! Watch it!" The man yelled. He turned around, eyes widening at the creature that stood in front of him.

"I-I'm sorry, Sir. I-I-I didn't me-mean any harm," Vivi stammered, bewildered at why this man was so baffled by his existence. He picked himself up, and looked up at the man's blank expression.

The man didn't hear the apology. He was still in shock as he stared at Vivi's black, featureless face. The man did they only thing that seemed right at the time. He pointed at Vivi and shouted, "It's a creature of Grimm! Someone kill it!"

Vivi's eyes widened in concern and fear at the man's harsh words, unable to comprehend why such a simple act like bumping into a person would warrant such a violent rebuttal; he backed away slowly, trying to get closer to his friends.

"Oh no you don't you little monster! You're not getting away! Someone help!" The man's cries began to attract attention from the crowds around them, namely hunters who caught the man's use of the word "grimm". One stepped out from the crowd and went over to the man, hand hovering over the axe on his waist.

"What're you yelling about old man? You're causing quite a distur…" The nameless hunter's words trailed off as he followed the shop keeps extended finger to a now distraught Vivi.

"Dust! What kind of grimm is this?" The startled hunter drew his weapon and began to approach Vivi, but Steiner and Zidane had seen and heard enough. They stepped in front of the little mage, using their bodies to shield him.

"Sir, I must warn you that should you take another step towards my friend here, I will have no choice but to engage you in combat." Though his words were polite enough, the look on Steiner's face and the giant jade colored sword he now reached for sent a clear message; this was not a battle the hunter wanted to fight.

Zidane went a step further, unsheathing his dual purple mage mashers and aiming them at the approaching teen.

"Look, buddy, you heard Rusty here. You mess with Vivi, you're dealing with all of us!" Zidane smirked at the hunter, flicking his wrists so that his blades were now in a reverse grip. "Up to you how you want this to go down!"

The hunter hesitated, pausing mid-stride to assess the situation.

"W-What the hell's a Vivi? Why are you two protecting that grimm?" He glanced back and forth between Steiner and Zidane, his axe raised in front of him.

"What are you babbling about?" Zidane asked the boy in front of them. "I've no idea what the hell a "grimm" is, but I can tell you Vivi isn't one of them."

"Indeed! Master Vivi is the most powerful black mage in all of Gaia! He is not some "grimm" as you so rudely insist on calling him!" Steiner added.

At this, the hunter's eyes widened. He lowered his weapon.

"Wait, you're from Gaia?" Hearing the hesitation in his voice as well as seeing his posture relax, Vivi tentatively poked his head out from around Steiner's large armored body. Having his friends by his side now, he felt safe enough to speak up.

"I-I really am sorry about bumping into you. I didn't mean to cause trouble. I'm n-not a Grimm, I'm a black mage." These humbly spoken words coming from the small mage stunned the shopkeeper and the hunter both.

"Wait… old man, since when do the creatures of Grimm talk or wear clothes? You moron!" The hunter walked off, cursing under his breath and enraged that he had made himself look like such a fool. The old man watched him for a while, then looked over at the trio. His surprise at hearing Vivi's voice gone now, he glared at the young boy.

"You may not be a grimm, but you're not human and you make company with filthy faunus." He shot Zidane a disgusted look. Zidane's eyes flashed in anger, and while he had no idea what a faunus was he stepped towards the man blades drawn. Steiner reached out his arm and placed his hand in front of Zidane's chest.

"It is alright. Though this man wields his tongue like a heathen, he is of no threat to us." Reluctantly, Zidane stepped back. The old man scoffed, still looking at the group with disdain in his eyes.

"You're nothing but a bunch of freaks. You should've stayed in Gaia!" With that, he spat in Vivi's direction and stormed off. Steiner made sure the man was truly gone, then turned to Vivi. He knelt down and put a hand on the mages shoulder.

"Master Vivi, are you alright?" The concern in his eyes made Vivi feel fortunate to have such a friend, but did nothing to help him feel better. Zidane walked over and put his arm around the little mages shoulders.

"Don't worry about what that old man said. He was a scumbag, anyways." He gave Vivi a reassuring smile, and Vivi tried to return it. Zidane continued, "Listen, Vivi. You gotta do something next time. You should try - screaming back or whatever. Or, I know! Show off some of your magic!"

"O-Okay, s-sure. I'll try." He stammered, still upset about the whole ordeal. Steiner pat him on the back, and stood up.

"Perhaps, Master Vivi, it would be best to continue moving. We are still quite lost, after all." He grabbed the map back from Zidane and began walking. Zidane gave Vivi a little nudge and a smile, and the two of them rushed off to catch up to Steiner.

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After an hour of walking, they finally arrived as to what seemed like a shop they'd see back home.

"Hi-Potion Products" the sign read. Underneath in a slightly smaller font held the information that gave a sense of relief to our wanderers- High quality imports from the kingdoms of Lindblum, Midgar and Alexandria of the Gaia continent. The three let out relieved sighs as they walked inside, hearing a faint "Kupo!" as the old door slowly creaked open.

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**Thank you for reading Chapter one of "WYCM." The next chapter will hopefully be here by Friday, and will be about the same length; we'll be getting back to our favorite 8 Beacon students. If you are enjoying the story, leave a review, fav or follow- it makes me happy.**

**Thanks again, and see you in the next Chapter.**


	3. Anxiety

**So here's CH3, "Anxiety." Wow, it turned out a bit longer than usual. Hope that's okay, had to do some crazy editing so it didn't totally suck.**

**We're back at beacon! I'll put the rest of this note at the end. Enjoy!**

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The sun began to set upon Beacon and teams RWBY and JNPR were still all giddy about the coming festivities as they called their traditional Saturday afternoon sparring session to a close.

The festival's activities would begin in two days time, with the "mystery event" and combat tournament taking place on one of the later days; that gave them all of Sunday to prepare for what they believed to be some of the best days of their first year at Beacon. Thankfully, headmaster Ozpin made the announcement that all classes would be pushed aside that week for the festival, as he too wished to spectate the glorious events to be had.

As he had stated at the end of his announcement, "Not even I could miss out on such festivities."

The teams washed up, put on their pajamas and returned to their places in team RWBY's dorm room. They wouldn't have to be in bed for a bit, so Ren cooked up some pancakes, Yang put on some music and they all began to address what they thought the festival would be like this year.

"So," Ruby started, "do you think the Atlasians are going to put on that firework display like they did last year? That was awesome!" She jumped around and threw her arms in the air, making exploding noises as spit flew everywhere.

"I'm not sure, but that was pretty amazing," Jaune replied, remembering the brilliant explosions of color and the effects the Atlasian fireworks were capable of doing. He turned his attention to the girl from Mistral, "Hey Pyrrha, do you know if Mistral is going to be doing anything special this year?"

"Well, I did receive word that they would be hosting some sort of formal dance in one of the main plazas," Pyrrha answered, slightly grinning at the boy in the blue-onsie pajamas. "Actually, I was wond-"

"Hey Jaune, wanna go to the Mistral dance with me?" Everyone in the room turned to see Yang jump down from her bunk and shoot a wink at a now blushing Jaune. "Come on! It'll be fun!"

Yang quickly shot a look at Pyrrha, eager to see her reaction; she received a murderous glare for her troubles. Jaune began to stammer as he tried to form some sort of answer, which came out as being just a slur of "why me" and "I don't know how to dance." Seeing that Jaune had been tortured enough that day, especially during today's sparring with Nora, Blake decided to save him from, well, himself.

Blake placed her book down, and trying to add to the conversation said, "Hey everyone, don't forget. Citizens from Gaia are going to be attending the festival this year."

Blake's mention of Gaia grabbed the entire groups attention. They stared at her, eyes full of excitement and curiosity, not remembering that Ozpin had already informed them of this during his announcement earlier today.

"What?" asked Jaune, "Who?"

With all eyes on her, Blake sighed. "Were none of you listening to Ozpin this morning?"

"I was," Weiss replied with a snooty undertone, "He said that they were arriving at Vale today."

Besides Blake, Weiss and a silent Ren, the rest of the group had no recollection of Ozpin's announcements regarding Gaia and actually knew next to nothing about the continent or it's people. What little knowledge they did have came from the stories they were forced to read for Dr. Oobleck's history class: tales of _The Warrior of Light, Alexandria, Bahamut _and_ Garland_.

During the class, they learned that neither continent had the capability to construct an airship able to withstand the brutal storms that raged violently above the ocean separating the two landmasses. The punishment dealt by the high winds, lightning, thunder and unrelenting downpour was neverending and made it impossible for any type of ship to make it through, along with any means of communication. Until now, apparently.

"Where did they get the technology to get here?!" asked Ruby, only to be met by silence. "Dr. Oobleck said the storms were impenetrable. How did they manage to just waltz through?"

"I guess you all really weren't paying attention," Blake teased as she received annoyed looks and a snicker from Weiss. "But Ozpin addressed that as well in his announcement. Apparently, the storms have subsided for the past month, no reason behind it. Because of this, the Vale delegation was able to contact Gaia's major kingdoms, asking them to participate in the festival as a sort of… welcoming."

"A welcoming?!" Weiss replied with a screech, "For all we know these people could be barbarians!"

"Aw, they can't be that bad, silly!" stated Nora, smiling. "I bet they're nice, right Ren?"

"Yes, Nora." Ren responded flatly, making the orange haired girl giggle. "However, Weiss, I doubt they'd come here to start a war," he continued, "The ocean separating us is massive and the storms could always return. Starting a war would be a very poor tactical move, and quite foolish."

"Ren's right," added Pyrrha. "Besides, they spoke with Vale delegation. If there were to be some sort of violent engagement, we would have been warned already."

"But still, guys," Jaune nervously said, "We know absolutely nothing about them. Isn't that enough to sort of… scare you?"

The eight sat in silence for a moment. The only known products they knew of came from "_Hi-Potion Products_" in Vale, run by a man that boldly claimed he sailed across the storm ridden ocean. Nora had said the man's name was Auron, adding in that a sinister scar ran down his face underneath his dark sunglasses and black hair. The products on display were all he had on the small boat he took here after being found washed up near one of the docks by Vale's police force about a year ago.

All he had were chests of worthless vials containing some weird liquid, a few outdated weapons and some fancy feathers; all the students apart from Nora were too nervous to actually stay inside the shop for more than two minutes, however. There was something about the shopkeeper that just seemed off, and they didn't want to stick around to find out the reason.

As they sat in silence, the anxiety levels rose and the questions they had began to add up.

"What kind of weapons do they have?"

"Do they have different kinds of dust over there?"

"What techniques do you think they prefer?"

"I heard that continent manufactured soulless creatures for war..." At this statement, everyone shut up to stare down the one who said this. Jaune was playing with his fingers and laughing nervously at the glares he was receiving. This wasn't going to be fun.

"I-I mean that's just a rumor I he-"

"When did you hear this!?" Weiss interrupted, the icy sting in her voice making Jaune cringe.

"A-a few m-months ago, I don't know!" He said quickly, "I was talking to that shopkeeper! One day I mustered enough confidence and went inside to talk to him. He told me!"

"Do you think they manufactured Grimm?" Ruby added in, a concerned look on her usually cheery face.

"It's possible," Blake replied. "But no one here has ever been able to establish stable communications with them. For all we know, this might not have ever even happened."

Blake turned to Jaune, "Besides, it was just a rumor, right?" Jaune nodded in confirmation.

"Say that they did. If that was the case, I don't think they'd bring one to Vytal," Ren said nonchalantly. "As I stated before, I doubt they'd be so naive as to attack us."

"He's right." Weiss admitted, "And if they did, they'd be in for quite the show."

"So what about the fighters?" Ruby asked, "What do you think they'll be like?"

"Actually that's a good question, sis," Yang replied, tilting her head as she placed a finger on her chin. "I'm not too worried! What about you guys?"

The rest of the Beacon students stopped to think, looking at each other timidly as Yang smiled down on them.

"Based on the weapons on that shop, I'd have to say they're primitive… So I don't think we need to fret," added Pyrrha, who was known for her ability and skill as a fighter.

However, the words of the confident duo didn't much help the other five students. The blonde is known for being a brutal brawler that will look an Ursa in the face and try to mock it. The redhead was the winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament for the past four years. They had reasons not to be too scared of those they knew nothing about. However, the other five did. Each was lost in his or her own thoughts, anxious to see what Gaia would bring, over-analyzing what they expected.

_What if their aura usage is stronger?_

_Was the dust more potent there?_

These questions raced in their heads a million miles a minute, making them unsure about the confidence they once had about the tournament.

"I think we're over-analyzing our competition," Ren stated calmly. He knew the confidence levels dipped for a few of the teens- especially Jaune. Not knowing their competition at all before going into the tournament was going to take its toll. "I say we drop the conversation about them, and let what happens, happen. We'll be defeating ourselves if we dive too deep into the possibilities."

"Ren's right!" Nora exclaimed. She had been silent for most of the conversation, particularly because she had no idea what they were talking about. While she was a bit anxious about the Gaian presence, she will still be able to hit people with Magnhild. She decided to change the subject back to what interested her much more.

"Oh Ren! Will you be my date to the Mistral ball thing?! We can wear matching outfits! Oh it'll be so much fun we'll go tomorrow when we getintoValeandwe'll-"

"That's enough, Nora." Ren said, with a gentle smile. "Of course I'll go with you." Nora squeaked in excitement, and hugged her best friend.

"Do you think Gaian boys will be cute?" Yang laced her fingers behind her head, smiling wolfishly at the rest of the group.

Everyone shot her a baffled look- even Nora. It was all too typical of her to ask a question such as this, especially about a topic they were trying to drop.

"…Just wondering! Can't a girl have dreams? Or do I have to settle for guys like Jauney-boy over there?"

Jaune blushed furiously and looked away, still wondering why Yang insisted on making it a point to single him out. Yang's continued antics did not amuse Pyrrha in the slightest. Pyrrha got up and replaced herself in front of Jaune to make some small talk and get him out of the depths of embarrassment he was in.

Rather, she wanted to figure out a way to ask him if he'd accompany her to the Mistral ball like she had planned to do before all the commotion began. However, doing so wasn't going well with everyone in the room, especially a certain blonde girl, so she was forced to wait for a better time.

Eventually talk of the Mistralian ball became the center of the group's conversation. Pyrrha described what it would be like, for they had held a similar event two years ago; as she gave the details, everyone was tuned in and imagining how one of the plazas in Vale would look all decked out in red and gold. While Beacon did host proms and events of the like, they weren't until later in the school year. They rarely had the opportunities to dress up formally, so they were quite excited to do so for the event. As it was established earlier, Ren and Nora were going together, but no one else really had a date.

Pyrrha had an idea who she wanted to bring, but none of the other girls had a boy in particular that they'd like to go to the ball with.

"Weiss, who would you like to bring?" asked Ruby, trying to establish a healthy conversation with her partner. However, her attempt turned out to be a waste of time when Weiss harshly replied, "Well, that's none of your business now is it!?" Ruby pouted and looked away, listening in to the rest of the groups converse.

Yang didn't like to wait on things. She'd rather have a date now then wait for someone to ask her. "Hey Jaune, so are we going?" she shot a cheerful look over at Jaune, who was sitting with Ren and Nora at the time. The blonde boy looked up at her, with a somewhat downcast expression.

"Sorry, Yang, I'm gonna have to pass…" he said quietly, "I-I think you'd be much better off finding someone else… Sorry!" Yang pouted and protested, but Jaune didn't come around. He stood his ground with his decision, something he didn't do very often. Pyrrha was talking to Blake at the time, but overheard Jaune saying, "...I have someone else in mind…" as one of his reasons as to why he wouldn't take Yang, and it couldn't help but make her smile. Internally, she was dancing in victory.

"Something funny?" asked Blake curiously as Pyrrha's emerald eyes met her amber ones. She looked over Pyrrha's shoulder to see Jaune, who was still rejecting a very persistent and persuasive Yang, then returned back to Pyrrha. "Think he's going to ask you?"

Pyrrha was unaware of the smile she was wearing, and blushed slightly at the question. "What, who? I don't know what you're talking about." She tried to bring the conversation back to the original topic but Blake wasn't going to let her off that easily. Blake was never one to question or heckle, but after living with Ruby and Yang their habits had begun to rub off on her. She decided she was going to have a little fun.

"Don't play dumb," Blake interrupted, "Do you think he is?"

Pyrrha was speechless at how Blake was acting like Yang, and with no easy ways out, she decided to just go with it. Blake already knew the deal, why fight?

"I'm not sure," Pyrrha quietly replied, "but I'm assuming he's finally caught on? It's not everyday a boy turns down Yang for someone else… Jaune is a teenage boy after all…" Blake smiled at the girl. She was happy for her, and happy that Jaune had finally stopped being so dense.

"You're right," Blake said, "Any other guy in this place would faint if Yang asked them out. Whoever Jaune's asking must be pretty special." She smiled and nudged Pyrrha with her elbow, who returned the smile as her blush deepened in redness.

Ruby was now trying to calm Yang down. It was Yang's first ever rejection- and though it may have been from Jaune and for reasons none other than trying to make Pyrrha angry, she was still somewhat upset that he readily shot her down after about five minutes of arguing.

The night carried on, and the girls circled up and began to talk about what dresses they were going to try and find. The only formal wear they had at Beacon was their uniform, and each of them gagged at the thought of wearing a school-girl outfit to a formal ball.

Meanwhile, Ren and Jaune sat near the door. At first they sat in silence as they tuned in to the girl's conversation- but all they heard were laughs and descriptions of clothes they didn't know existed. Jaune was the one to break the silence, "Do you have a tux?"

"Nope."

"Neither do I."

Their conversation about formal wear ended there, and they carried on about the current video game systems and their favorite web-series. The girls soon waved them over.

"What's up?" Jaune asked as he took his seat.

"We have decided that we are going to take a trip into town tomorrow morning to select dresses for the ball," started Weiss, "Do you have any objection to this?"

The boys shook their heads, they needed to pick up tuxedos anyway as they planned on going to the ball as well.

"Fine by me!" Jaune said smiling. "When we go to town, maybe we'll see the people from Gaia? Maybe they're nice people, like Nora said."

"Yay!" squealed Nora, happy her leader mentioned her name. "Ren! Guess what Jaune said!" Ren just looked at the girl.

"Well, if we're going to go to town, we should go early," Pyrrha said, receiving nods of agreement.

"Bed time!" exclaimed Ruby as she hopped up from the floor to climb into her top bunk-fort-thing.

"Yeah, we should get to bed," Yang agreed. She gave an evil look to Pyrrha and then to Jaune. She didn't take being rejected by tall, blonde and straggly very well.

"Jaune! You should come shopping with me tomorrow. I need a cute boy to tell me what I look nice in, and it's the least you can do for breaking my heart," she said in a playful tone.

Jaune's face grew bright red. "I thought we were over this!" he exclaimed, burying his face into his hands. "Why can't you just go with Ruby, Blake or Weiss?"

"Because," the busty blonde explained, "They're girls, and won't tell me the truth. You on the other hand, are too honest to not tell me the truth." Blake and Weiss gave Yang a cold look, but tuned in to what exactly Yang was doing when they received winks.

Pyrrha was pretty annoyed. She knew Yang loved to tease both of them, but this was getting ridiculous.

"Jaune, I'd prefer if you would accompany me to Vale in the morning. You are my partner, and I too would like your opinion on a dress," she declared, giving Yang a look that said, "_You will not win this._"

Jaune was overwhelmed. He was already worried about the tournament and the Gaian presence, but apparently had more to deal with. As he saw Pyrrha glaring at Yang, his oblivious mind raced with reasons as to why.

"_Why are they fighting over me!? Is it because they both like me.._?" he thought, before succumbing to his insecurities. "_No, theres no way either of them do. Why not ask Ren if they need an honest man's opinion?_"

His thoughts fried his brain, only allowing him to clumsily mutter, "I-uh-well, uh… Why not ask Ren to go, Yang!?"

Before Jaune could look to Ren for backup, the magenta-eyed boy was already halfway out the door as Nora pushed him from behind. "Because he's MY partner!" she shouted possessively.

"Goodnight, everyone." Ren chuckled as the door began to close behind them.

"See you in the morning!" Ruby cheered as she poked her head out of one of the sheets covering her bed.

The rest of JNPR said their goodbyes, and after they left Blake, Weiss and Yang all began to laugh. Torturing Jaune had become their new favorite game to play, and if this was any indication as to how things would play out, tomorrow was going to be a fun day.

* * *

**Thus concludes the day for our 8 Beacon students. Focused a little bit on Pyrrha and Jaune, the reason is they're the only "pairing" as of right now, so don't worry, everyones going to have some limelight in the later chapters. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed.**

**As I stated in the intro, this story is gonna be going for the long run. It might just be me, but I don't like to rush things. Right now, I wanna set up a calm, fun environment before... welll... hehehe. **

**If you like the story, feel free to write a review, drop a fav or follow the story! It makes me motivated to write more and pump the chapters out faster. Thank you all again for reading!**

**Shoutout to Depresdmustache for the help editing. He should be posting some art soon, be on your toes!**


	4. Vivi

**Wooooo CH3! Shorter than the last, but not bad. This chapter we go back and check on the Gaians, meeting some new characters on the way. I like this chapter because it sets up some awesome scenes for the future, trust me. Also, if you played FF9 10,000 times like I have, you can somewhat expect what's gonna happen sooner or later! :D Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Time escaped the travelers of Gaia. Since their encounter with the old man, they decided to wander the streets and get a feel for the city. Not only would it take their mind off of the incident, but it would be helpful knowing the location they were residing in for the next week. Eventually it grew dark, and the trio had to find their way to Goodsprings Inn before the rest of their party began to worry. Not to mention, as the night grew later, they grew starved.

"_Maybe Vale IS as big as Lindblum_," they thought to themselves as they finally arrived to their destination. Marble pillars supported the front canopy of the monolithic building, itself being made of stone and brick. Windows to every room were illuminated with an orange tint, giving a sense of warmth, and neon white sign that softly glowed "Goodsprings Inn" welcomed them home. Zidane took the lead and turned back to Vivi and Steiner, smiling.

"Home sweet home," he said, as he motioned for them to follow him inside.

Vivi and Steiner nodded, quickly walking in behind Zidane, all three excited to finally rest after the crazy day they had.

They walked through the glass front doors, only to be met by the large crowds of the people that were also trying to relax after a day of traveling but were failing to do so. Gaians of all shapes and sizes packed the lobby, mixed with people Zidane assumed were from the other kingdoms of Vytal.

"Heh, guess it's a full house," muttered Zidane as he stepped aside for a Midgar woman carrying two over-stuffed suitcases.

"I-I guess it's good that the rest checked-in early," added Vivi, who was a bit overwhelmed by the mass of people. Being much shorter than his other two friends, he had trouble navigating through the crowd.

He was right though, for the chaos that was trying to check in looked about as fun as being caught in a carve spider's web. The trio went on trying to squeeze past the crowds so that they could go upstairs to the floor their room was on. However, doing so proved to be no easy feat. Zidane's tail was stepped on multiple times, causing his to yell at the ones responsible. Vivi, with his lack of height, became lost in the mass of people multiple times, forcing his comrades to search the crowd for his pointy hat.

Steiner was never one to "squeeze past" anyone, he was more of a "bulldoze through" man. He grabbed his partners and placed them behind him as he walked forward, acting as a plow as he pushed aside anyone who was unfortunate enough to be in his path. Zidane laughed the entire time and even Vivi chuckled as the men and women of Gaia and Vytal alike started to verbally abuse the knight. Of course, Steiner apologized profusely as he led his friends to the staircase, only to receive murderous looks and the occasional unsheathing of a weapon.

After pushing through the crowd and Steiner apologizing to a woman he tripped along the way, they approached the staircase and ascended to their rooms, numbers 404 and 406; they swiped one of their key-cards and walked through the ivory colored door. In order to accommodate their whole group, eight in total, they were provided with two side-by-side rooms that had a connecting door in the center wall between them. Each room consisted of a kitchen full of utensils, a decent sized living area with couches as well as a television, and two bedrooms providing two beds each.

* * *

Opening the door to the room also revealed two women residing inside; one lay upon the couch reading her book and the other sat on a table by the window, staring at the stars above.

"Hey Freya, hey Garnet," Zidane said with a smirk across his playful face. The three were extremely late, and he knew it. He just didn't want to deal with the scolding he was about to get.

The two ladies brought their eyes over to the trio with looks of annoyance, which were quickly converted to slight grins at the overly cheesy boy in front of them. "Did you miss us? And hey- where's everyone else?"

"Actually, yes, I did miss you three." Garnet responded before looking back down at her book.

"We got lost trying to figure this place out. Blame Rusty," Zidane let out a wide smile, his eyes making a quick scan of the royalty in front of him.

No one in Vytal knew it, but Garnet was a Queen- Queen Garnet Til Alexandros XVII of Alexandria in Gaia. Her dark, chin-length hair covered her face as she looked down into her favorite story, "_I want to be your Canary_." Her brown eyes and fair skin seemingly glowed in the bright fluorescent light emitted from the lightbulb above. With no desire to dress like a queen, she was in her casual attire: a white bell-sleeved blouse under a skin-tight, sleeveless orange jumpsuit with corset lacing in the front and back along with her pair of red leather gloves and red ankle boots.

She looked back up at the three as they were placing their bags of good on the table, "We were waiting all day for you to get back. Do you like the rooms provided?"

"Yeah, they're great!" Zidane exclaimed, placing his shopping bags on the floor near the kitchen table. "The town is huge too, which is why we got so lost. You should totally check it out. Right, Vivi?"

"Y-yeah, it's pretty big," the shy mage replied.

"Well, Freya, what about you?" Zidane said, turning his gaze to the Burmecian warrior. "Did you miss us?"

Freya Cresent was not all that amused, and actually worried quite a bit while the trio was out on the town. Being in a new land, completely unknown aside from the old maps which resided in the library of Alexandria, she didn't know what to expect. The Burmecian pushed back her red hat with decorative metallic wings, which, combined with her white hair, obscured much of her rat-like face and green eyes. She glanced at Zidane, giving him a look that he knew would provide trouble.

"We sent the others to look for you, Zidane," Freya said as calmly as she could muster. "You should have been more informative and actually thought about letting us in on what's going on, for once."

She stood up, wiping down her long red coat, which had a long split up the back, buckles on the upper arms that roped around the sleeves and a large emblem bearing the Burmecian coat of arms on her torso.

"They haven't come back yet. I'll inform them of your return, so they can head back." Seeing the hint of fear in Zidane's blue eyes, she decided to lighten up. It wasn't his fault he didn't know the city all too well- but he could have at least responded to the text messages she sent him earlier. However, he was childish sometimes and he needed to be put in his place. She sighed, "Have you brought any food like we asked?"

"Yes, these bags here Freya," Steiner answered, placing two paper bags full of various meats and vegetables on the table. "They should feed everyone for tonight and tomorrow morning. Will you need assistance providing us with a meal? Master Vivi and I haven't had a morsel to eat all day."

"I told you to take that banana," Zidane said grinning. "All you had to do was take it! Hell, I had four!"

"Well some of us are not filthy thieves such as yourself! Princess, please try to talk some sense into this scoundrel while I help Miss Freya prepare a meal for us."

"She doesn't need to be brought into this! It's not my fault that shopkeeper left their cart unattended!"

"You are lucky I don't silence you myself!"

"Try it, Rusty!"

While Steiner and Zidane playfully argued, Vivi sat on the couch next to Garnet, his yellow eyes looking at the floor with sadness or anger, or, or- he didn't know. Today had just been such a weird day. Even though the display Steiner made in the lobby cheered him up a bit, he couldn't help reverting back to this gloomy state.

After his encounter with the old man and the kid that wanted to kill him, he just couldn't get out of this funk. He had travelled all over parts of Gaia with Zidane and the rest of his group and he thought he had more confidence than this, but he just felt helpless when that old man called him a devil or, what was it? A Grimm? He didn't care. Whatever confidence he had crumbled after today.

"_Zidane and Steiner said that I am the strongest black magic users in Gaia. I sure didn't act like it_." He thought, mentally kicking himself. The way this place oogled him just filled him with despair.

A soothing touch, a soft hand touching his snapped him out of his thoughts. He glanced over at it, tracing the delicate gloved hand to Garnet's concerned face.

"Vivi… Are you okay?" she asked, genuinely worried about the little mage. She could see the hurt in his eyes, and wanted to get his mind off whatever he was dwelling on. "The festival is going to be fantastic! Are you not excited?"

"Yeah, I-I am, don't worry about me..." Vivi managed to say, an obvious sadness in his voice. This shut Zidane and Steiner up, who looked at their friend with concern.

"Hey Vivi, what's up?" Zidane asked, jumping onto a kitchen chair so that the back of the chair faced the front of him, leaning his arms on top. "You still shaken up by what that old bastard said today?"

"Please inform me if you are still hurt by his words, Master Vivi!" Steiner added, kneeling in front of his companion. "Chivalry requires a knight to look after his comrades-in-arms. I will not abandon you!"

"I have to agree with Steiner," Freya added, setting the cooking she was doing aside while she tried to comfort her friend. "I too will protect you. You have my word. What did this man say?"

This touched Vivi… but he just couldn't get over this depression. He sat in silence, causing Freya to turn to Zidane and Steiner.

"Zidane, what happened?"

Zidane glanced over to Freya, "Some old man today started calling Vivi a "Grimm," which by how he was acting, must be some sort of monster around here." He stood up from his chair, scratching the back of his head, "Then some kid tried to attack him. Vivi didn't fight back, so Steiner and I had to squash it. Then the old guy… he called me… a filthy faunus?"

Zidane placed his finger on his chin, trying to think. "Come to think of it… both Vivi and I were yelled at. I noticed we got a lot of stares because of how we look." Steiner nodded, the only time he remembered being singled out is when a teenager teased him over his "crummy armor."

"I-I don't want to cause anyone trouble!" Vivi blurted out.

This silenced everyone.

"I-I want to protect myself! I don't want to h-have you guys always protecting me!"

"But aren't we your friends?" asked Garnet, showing empathy for the mage. "Why won't you let us help you?"

"Y-Yes you are, but why are you!? I'm not from Gaia. I... I was built, I was just a prototype, just a weapon, meant to destroy the world," Vivi said, anger growing in his voice. "I was reminded of that today."

The gang already knew these facts, but were left speechless by his sudden outburst.

"No matter where I go, I know I'll be looked at differently. Steiner, Zidane," Vivi looked over to the two men, "T-thanks for standing up for me. I wanted to fight back like you taught me, but I-I just got scared. I didn't want to get in trouble."

Zidane made his way over to the mage and sat next to him. Back in Gaia, Vivi had made excellent progress in overcoming his fear of using his magic to protect himself and others. It seemed to Zidane that this place had brought back some of those insecurities.

* * *

Across town, another odd group of three walked through the darkening streets, peering down dark alleys and illuminated shops. One of them stopped mid-stride, reaching into his pocket to pull out a cell phone. The bright screen lit up, cascading a soft white light on his spiky blonde hair and aqua eyes. A single message appears on-screen, displaying the text, "10:42 PM; They made it. Please hurry back, Vivi needs help. –Freya." The man turned towards the rest of his group, taking no time to glance at each of the questioning faces before he spoke.

"We need to go back."

* * *

Blake was restless. As she looked about the dark room, her night-vision helped her investigate her sleeping teammates. Ruby was sprawled across her mattress, Weiss was tucked in neatly like a little girl and, although she couldn't see Yang in the top bunk, her sound-sensitive extra pair of ears heard the small snores that escaped Yang's sleeping body. _I guess being a faunus pays off in some aspects._

Blake crept quietly from her bottom-bunk, careful not to make too much noise. She grabbed her scroll and slipped out of the room and navigated through the grand halls of Beacon to the rooftop that Pyrrha and Jaune held their "secret" training sessions. She chuckled, "_He needs to get a clue before he misses out on her. Maybe I should talk to him_."

As Blake walked to the edge of the rooftop she took a seat, letting her legs dangle. She gazed at the rest of Beacon, green and yellow lights emitting from the windows of each grand tower presenting a slight greenish-blue hue across the night sky. How big IS this school?

A cool breeze passed, blowing her ebony hair back gently as the wind tickled the skin on her bare legs. She let her amber eyes close, mystified by what the coming days would bring.

_I wonder what the people are Gaia are like… if it's true that they manufactured creatures that could fight a war, what kind of people are they other than evil…? She pondered. Why do I care so much about this? Why am I so nervous? I'm sure the people are fine…_

Her thoughts eventually drifted to the new "mystery" event that was to be brought here from Gaia, perplexed by what it could be. She sat there, lost in her own mind. She eventually couldn't help it, and as much as she hated herself for it, thought about what Yang said earlier as well, "_…will there be cute boys?_"

Her thinking was cut short when she heard faint footsteps creeping closer behind her. Instantly, she opened her eyes and turned around questioning, "Who's there!?" with clenched fists ready to strike due to the absence of Gambol Shroud.

"Whoa whoa there, it's me!"

It was none other than Sun Wukong, the monkey-tailed boy Blake met just a couple days prior. "Jeez, lighten up!"

"Sun, how did you get up here? And… how did you know I was here?" Blake said in a hushed tone, going back to her initial seat on the edge, this time letting her left foot remain on the roof, bringing her knee to her chest. Sun walked up and sat next to her, giving her a touch on the shoulder.

"Well, I came to see if you heard about the people of Gaia, and ever since you gave me your scroll number I'm able to see where you are by this blinky red-"

"No, Sun, how did you get up to Beacon… only students are allowed," she replied, giving him a look of mock-annoyance. "Also, that's creepy."

"Oh, uh- funny story. Well, not really. I snuck onto one of the dust-planes! It said students only but hey, I fig-"

"Okay, Sun." Blake was giggling; the thought of Sun tiptoeing into the air-vehicle was all that came to her mind. "And yes, I did hear about the Gaians. Professor Ozpin announced it when we returned to Beacon the morning after our conflict with Roman," she stated. "However, it seems most of my team along with team JNPR wasn't listening- which doesn't surprise me one bit, considering how much they were talking about the tournament."

"Well," Sun asserted, "I heard they got here earlier today, along with the rest of the kingdoms! I was wondering if you'd like to go see if we can meet them, well, because you're my only friend here, and, uh, I think it'd be fun!" Sun couldn't help but blush as the amber-eyed beauty turned her head to him and gave a slight grin.

"Sorry, Sun. I can't. I'm going to town with my team and JNPR tomorrow morning, though, so maybe I'll see you. I should probably go to bed. Goodnight." With that, she got up from her perch and walked inside, giving Sun a wave before closing the door behind her.

_Why does she do that to me?_ Sun Wukong was left hanging on the roof, and now, without a purpose to remain at Beacon anymore, decided he would go to town alone. _Guess I'll just have to … borrow… one of those fancy cars in the hanger. I'm sure they won't mind._

* * *

**So, any guesses as to who the last three FF characters are gonna be? :D**

**So yeah, there's gonna be a total of 16 characters, some more main than others. Yes, it's a lot of characters to keep track of, so I wouldn't expect seeing all 16 in one place for a while. We already know the RWBY characters, and I'm introducing the FF ones as if you have no idea- to sort of play that role of "they've never been to Vytal before." **

**Next chapter things speed up a bit and some action goes down. I've been dying to release it, so expect it to be out around Xmas/the day after. **

**Thanks again for reading my story. Thanks Depresd for the editing. **

**See you all in the next Chapter.**


	5. Protectors

**Hey! Sorry this came out late, server issues? I saw that multiple people had the same issue, but again, sorry!**

**This chapter was super fun to write. We meet the last 3 Gaians! YAY NO MORE AWFUL INTRODUCTIONS! Recommended listening: From Shadows. (I listened to this while I wrote, it was cool). :D**

**Also, I swear a tiny bit here. I HATE using curse words in writing but sometimes they express what I want. Rated T for a reason! As always, I hope you enjoy, and I'll have a quick note at the end.**

* * *

"Wait, what's wrong!?"

"Something's wrong with Vivi. We need to get back and help."

"But I was finally getting used to this damn place!"

"We can worry about that tomorrow."

"Ohhhhh! Come on!"

The blonde swordsman rushed past people, occasionally bumping into them causing a scene drawing looks from others. He began to blend in with the darkness, resembling nothing more than a fleeting shadow. As he darted through the streets, his dark outfit blended him into the inky darkness of the night. Whenever he passed underneath a streetlight, however, one could get a quick glimpse of his unusual attire: a high collar sleeveless black shirt, black pants and boots, and black cloth which covered his left leg and arm. A single ebony pauldron rested on his left shoulder, a gleaming silver badge representing Fenrir fused with it. A massive sword held by a black leather sheath was slung across his upper back; making those still wandering the streets ponder how he could possibly carry -or even _SWING_- such a massive piece of ordinance.

"Cloud, slow down!" yelled one of his partners behind him. "I'm starting to cram- ow! See Cloud!" The second member of the trio, a hyperactive ninja, was grasping at her side, taking a second to slow down under a street lamp and hope her cramp would dissipate. The short black hair being held back by a similarly black headband tied across her forehead complimented her dark-brown eyes, shining in the glow of the emitted light above.

As she heaved, the black tank top with a white floral design she wore felt as though it were assisting in squeezing the air from her lungs. The top was short, revealing her midriff, which was rapidly moving as she took short breaths.

"Please… stop… guys…" she gasped, grabbing ahold of the lamppost, eye's clenched shut as her face pointed towards the ground.

"Yuffie, come on!" yelled the last member of her party, a rather beautiful brawler. "You don't want anyone to touch your Materia, right!?" This third member had long, black hair that just reached her lower back, which flowed in the wind as she swiftly ran and teased her friend. Her dark brown eyes sparkled as they looked back at the girl now established as Yuffie. She, too, got glances as the men of Vale checked her out, primarily for her rather large bust.

She wore a white shirt underneath a black zip-up vest with black shorts that folded at the waist, which blended in with the night as she ran, much like the man ahead of her. "Keep up!"

As soon as Yuffie heard the word "Materia," she awoke from the trance the pain in her side caused. "Dammit, Tifa!" she yelled at her teammate, and took off in the direction her friends were headed. Her khaki shorts and khaki-colored, laced knee-high boots began to blur as she picked up the pace.

Little did the trio know that they were being watched.

* * *

Sun had parked his "borrowed" car in some lot, not too worried about getting it back before the Beacon staff noticed it was gone. While it took a bit longer to descend the massive cliff Beacon rested upon, it was easier to take than getting through the dust-plane security again.

He sat perched atop a roof that overlooked the alleyway the odd three were running down, and, since they were making a scene, observed them in amusement. Their odd clothing and obvious urgency was more than enough to peak Sun's curiosity, and he chased silently after them from above.

_"Now those really are some weird clothes… Not something I've seen in Vytal… Why does that blonde dude only have one long sleeve?"_ Sun thought. _"Hmph… Wait a minute- they must be some of the ones from Gaia! Y'know… I think…"_

Before he had finished the thought, Sun acted. He watched their movements, and then scanned the rooftops. After predicting their paths, he decided on one for himself; one that would intercept theirs and give him the opportunity to interact with the foreigners. As he leaped from rooftop to rooftop, he glanced over to make sure they were still on track. Suddenly, the blonde leader took a sharp turn down the street Sun had just jumped over.

"Shit!" Sun cursed as he looked back. "Guess it's now or never."

Sun ran parallel to the street until he once again caught up with the blonde man, then jumped from his roof to the street. As he tumbled most ungracefully into Cloud's path, Cloud had to firmly plant his foot into the ground before him; it was all Cloud could do to not trample Sun. Tifa immediately came to a screeching halt behind Cloud. Before either could speak a word however, Sun shot up, brushed off the dust, and shot out his hand.

"Hi! You must be from Gaia! I'm Sun!" Sun said cheerfully, his bright grin revealing his radiant white teeth.

Cloud and Tifa couldn't help but gaze at Sun as they nearly fell over from stopping so suddenly. As they looked at him, their eyes travelled to Sun's tail, causing Sun to feel apprehensive.

_"He also has a tail… just like…"_

"FINALLY! You guys stopped for m- oh, hey there!" Yuffie said breathlessly as she approached her friends and the mysterious boy in front of them.

"Hey!" she continued, still gasping for air, "You have a tail! Do you know Zidane!?"

"Uhh, what?" Sun responded, retracting his hand as no one shook it. He placed it on top of his head, hands gliding through his golden hair as he tried to play it off. "I don't know anyone by that name."

"Oh! Well, I'm Yuffie! The blondie here is Cloud. He may look mean, but boy he's such a sweetheart! And that there is Tifa! Wait, are you looking at her chest?" With that, Sun blushed a deep red and exclaimed, "What!? No! Of course not!"

"Yuffie, enough," the spiky blonde said curtly, looking back at her before returning his gaze to Sun. He reached out his hand, grasping Sun's into a firm handshake. "Cloud."

Sun glanced at Cloud's giant buster sword, observing its strange grooves and segmentations. It seemed as though the sword was composed of other smaller blades that snapped together to form the single, massive blade strapped to the spiky blonde's back.

"Nice sword, Cloud," Sun chuckled, letting go of Cloud's hand. "Overcompensating?"

Cloud glared coldly at Sun, who sheepishly smiled in return. The brunette behind him laughed as she approached Sun.

"Tifa," Tifa said smiling, also giving Sun a handshake. "We need to get going, but it's very nice to me-"

Out of the corner of Tifa's eye, she caught something that seemed… off. She turned her gaze, watching five suspicious-looking men in red sunglasses, all black clothing, and red ties smash the glass door into a shop called _"From Dust Till Dawn,"_ gleaming-red weapons drawn. As they entered, Tifa watched through the window as the lead thug punched the elderly shop-keep in the temple. As the old man fell to the ground the thieves went on to stealing what seemed to be some form of crystalline, unrefined Materia, as well as a powder of some sort.

The scene didn't go unnoticed by Sun either, recognizing the men as some of the exact lackeys a particular orange-haired criminal liked to hire. He remembered seeing similarly dressed men attack a different Dust shop yesterday, as well as his having to get involved.

"Torchwick," Sun muttered under his breath, narrowing his eyes in resentment at the thugs now wrecking the Dust shop.

"Cloud, Yuffie, quick!" Tifa exclaimed, pulling her gauntlets from inside her vest.

"Sun, stay back." Cloud ordered, grasping the hilt of his massive sword. Tifa slid her Premium Heart gauntlets over her hands, tightening them across her knuckles as Yuffie grabbed Conformer, the large and colorful 5-point shuriken strapped to her back.

Sun sat astonished as the three ran to the entrance of the shop. He wanted to help; yet at the same time something was telling him to stay back and let the scene unfold. If they needed help, he was right there.

"Stop!" Cloud yelled, positioning himself right outside the shattered glass door.

The thugs turned around to face the party outside the shop, laughing at their apparel.

"Who the _fuck_ are these clowns?" one of them asked, looking at his partners.

"Who cares? Slice 'em!" another yelled, pointing his weapon towards Tifa.

The five thugs rushed outside the shop, surrounding Tifa, Yuffie and Cloud. The trio closed the gap between them until they stood together, their backs facing inwards.

A crowd of civilians began to surround the eight combatants, their curiosity overwhelming their fear. Some were yelling at the thugs, other looked mortified as to what was about to happen.

One of the thugs rushed at Cloud with his red scimitar. Cloud blocked the attack with his massive buster sword, sparks emitting from the clash and screams erupting from the onlookers. He pushed the man back, and with that, reached to the center of his sword's blade near the hilt. Unlatching the lock, his gigantic Buster sword shed one of its dagger side blades; rotating its gear-like hilt parallel to the blade itself until it locked into place. Now equipped with both the gigantic buster and short blade, he swiftly ran at the man who initially attacked him. Cloud parried the man's poor attempt of a swing with his shorter blade before launching the larger Buster, blunt side first, into his attacker, sending the thug skyward. The thug landed with a loud thud, groaning in agony before passing out.

Astonished, two other men lunged at Cloud while Tifa and Yuffie dealt with thugs of their own.

"Hey baby, why fight? Why don't you just come with me?" One thug snickered as he tried to slash Tifa with his red machete. Tifa dodged the blow, making her way to the thug's left flank. "Aw, don't be so shy! Gimme a kiss!"

"Sorry handsome, but I don't think you're my type." Tifa cooed flirtatiously, simultaneously spinning to her left and unleashing a lightning fast roundhouse kick to the back of the thug's skull. Before he could hit the floor, Tifa grabbed his black vest smiling and mercilessly rammed her right fist right into his gut, blue sparks emitting from Premium Heart.

Sun continued to observe the quarrel; his own weapon was readied, but he continued to remain a spectator. He was intrigued at their style of fighting, and how their weapons seemed to operate without a compartment for Dust.

_"These guys must be leftovers from Roman's attack a few days back… but Cloud… and Tifa… are she and Yang…?"_

As Yuffie's opponent approached, Yuffie couldn't help but tease. "Cute sword, hot–shot."

"Shut the hell up!" The thug bellowed, following up his retort with a battle cry as he swung his gnarly sword at Yuffie. Yuffie jumped up and flipped over the man, landing in a kneeling position in back of her opponent. _"Is this guy serious?"_

Yuffie surrounded Conformer with a green, sparkly mist that danced around her weapon. As the thug turned around Yuffie spun and launched Conformer forward, the 5-point shuriken spinning rapidly as it connected with the thugs chest, throwing him backwards and knocking him unconscious as his head smashed into the ground. _"Too damn easy. Didn't really even need to use Materia, but hey."_

Cloud leapt over his two pursuers, landing atop "From Dust Till Dawn." Now having to deal with two thugs, he swiftly returned the fusion sword's side blade to its place on the main buster. He then reached his hand for one of the two back blades, one saw-toothed and one straight-edged, which made up the blunt end of the massive buster. He reached for the long black hilt of the straight-edged one, unlocking it from its place, and tightly grasping it in his left palm.

Without a word he leapt from his perch on the store's roof, charging at the two thugs before him as the back blade emitted a blue flame and the main buster emitted blue and white sparks. Before the thugs could even raise their weapons in defense, Cloud leaned forward and, with unbelievable speed, swiftly lunged between the two men. His afterimage trailed a couple of seconds behind him as he held both blades perpendicular to his torso. He had sliced the abdomens of both men, making sure that, while very painful, the wounds were not fatal. The man hit with the burning back blade looked down in shock at his tattered clothes and burnt skin before passing out; the second was electrocuted until he lost consciousness.

Sun couldn't believe his eyes. _How in Dust's name did he do that? Does he have multiple semblances, being able to form both BLUE fire and lightning? It has to be… There's no dust in his weapon, it's just a sword…_

Cloud got up from his kneeling position, the crowd cheering at their victory. Police officers rushed over to cuff the men in black and red, thanking the trio for their heroics. Yuffie waved excitedly, and Tifa smiled as the people of Vale looked in awe upon the heroes. They checked on the old man, seeing if he was okay, before returning back to the front of the store.

"That didn't take too much time, right?" Tifa asked Cloud, who was already heading in the direction of the inn.

"No, it didn't. But we must get back. No more delays."

"Goodbye, Sun! It was a pleasure!" Yuffie exclaimed as Tifa dragged her away from the enormous amount of attention she was basking in.

Sun sat there, mouth agape. "Yeah, bye! N-Nice work!"

* * *

The three made their way to Goodsprings Inn. The mobs of people had finally dissipated, and the trio was able to easily make it to their rooms unimpeded. They entered, the aroma of stew and grilled vegetables swirling through the room to greet them.

The other five Gaians looked towards the door, smiling to see the search party return unharmed.

Cloud wasted no time and quickly walked into the room towards Vivi, who was still on the couch, and kneeled down in front of him.

"Vivi, Freya told me you were having trouble with something. You alright?"

Vivi looked at the aqua-eyed man in front of him, "Yeah, I-I feel much better now."

Cloud gave Vivi a smile, putting his hand on Vivi's shoulder. "You sure, bud?"

"Yeah, thanks Cloud." Vivi's eyes brightened as he felt Cloud tap his shoulder and put a fist in front of him. Vivi laughed and gave Cloud a fist-bump, a special privilege given exclusively to Vivi. If anyone else were to try such a thing with Cloud, they'd be meet with nothing but an icy stare and a hand left hanging.

As a matter of fact, no one in the room even knew that Cloud knew what a fist-bump was before he started doing them with Vivi. Vivi had a way of lifting Cloud's spirits with just his presence alone. It was apparent to present company that Cloud's tough and cold exterior melted away whenever he was around the little mage, and it probably came from the sense of kinship they shared. Despite his strong appearance, Cloud was also plagued by insecurities; poisonous thoughts and memories that whispered he'd never be strong enough to protect his friends. This similarity they shared became the foundation upon which their bond grew, and with their friends support their friendship flourished.

"Well Vivi, you know I'm always willing to listen. I'm glad you're feeling better." Cloud stood up and nodded to his comrades, who returned the smiles.

"I'M SOOOOOOO HUUUUUNNNNNGRYYYYY!" Yuffie yelled as she plopped down on a kitchen chair. "Freya, is that stuff almost done!?"

"As a matter of fact, yes it is." Freya said proudly as she and Steiner began to set the kitchen table. Since it only sat four Steiner had gone to the other room and brought in the extra table, making it much longer so they could all eat together.

The meal began, and Yuffie and Zidane immediately began to stuff their faces wildly. Steiner shook his head as he watched the duo go at it as Tifa and Garnet giggled.

Everyone else ate quietly, each being starved after the extremely long trip over and strenuous day they had. Zidane eventually sparked conversation, "So, anything cool happen while you guys were looking for us?"

Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie exchanged glances.

"Well," Tifa began, "We met another man with a tail…"

"Then we fought some thugs trying to rob some old guy! We won!" Yuffie added, triumphantly throwing her fist into the air as crumbs fell from her mouth.

The room suddenly went silent. Zidane was in shock; he didn't know of anyone else with a tail.

"What did he look like? What's his name?" Zidane feverishly asked, taking a sip of water in a vain attempt to keep his cool.

"Actually… a lot like you. He said his name was Sun." Cloud answered.

"Well, guess I have to look for him," Zidane shrugged, "Maybe I'm a native Vytalian!"

The group chuckled as they continued to eat. Steiner then looked up and asked, "So what was this about a fight?"

"Some thugs were trying to rob this store that sold some weird crystals," Yuffie replied, "It was a five versus three and we kicked their asses! Right Cloud!?"

All eyes turned onto the spiky blonde man, who shrugged indifferently, "It wasn't much of a fight. We just did the right thing and gave them to the police."

"Thugs in the city, not to mention the heckling Zidane, Vivi and I had to go through! What kind of barbaric society is this!" Steiner bellowed, bewildered that so much had happened in just one day. Tifa spoke up.

"Sun said some name… Torchwick?... Apparently this guy's Vytal's top villain. He said the thugs were under his command," Tifa continued, "Gaia has it's problems too. Don't be so quick to judge, Steiner. I'm sure we'll meet some nice people soon; people like Sun."

"I suppose you're right," Steiner conceded, returning eagerly to his meal.

"Well, tomorrow I want to see the city!" exclaimed Garnet, receiving unanimous support. Now that most had a grasp of what the city was like, navigating its streets wouldn't be to difficult.

"I hope Tifa's right," added Vivi hopefully, "I really hope we meet nice people."

With that everyone smiled at the mage and carried on with their conversations, telling jokes and making plans for the next day.

* * *

**The ending is pretty cute, come on.**

**Hope you enjoyed that! Okay so introductions ARE DONE. We have our characters. Now... it's time for them to all meet ;).**

**The next chapter will be on the Sunday before the Ball, and some HARDCORE SHOPPING AND PLOT DEVELOPMENT ENSURE. **

**Now that I've established everyone, I can freely go between the two groups. **

**Thank you for reading my story, and thanks Depresd for the edit. I'll see you all in the next Chapter.**


	6. Jollification

**Happy New Year everyone! I wanted to publish this yesterday but... well... yeah. Stella Artois and Jack Daniels happened.**

**Chapter 5! Jollification. Recommended listenings: "Clarity" by Foxes: Tom Budin remix (Go to the 2:00 min mark), or "Final Fantasy IX- Lindblum Theme."**

**During this chapter, keep in mind that everything is happening in the same time frame- I will be going back and forth, meaning I'll be reversing time and adding time as I go between groups to keep it consistent.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Gooooood morning team RWBY!" The chipper redhead was ready to take on the day. Ruby looked to her alarm clock, which now read 7:05AM- she had given her teammates an extra 5 precious minutes of sleep before waking them.

"Let's go let's go! Shower! Get dressed! We have a lot to do today! We're going to meet team JNPR for breakfast at 8!"

"Five more minuuuuuuutes," moaned Yang, face stuffed in her pillow. "I don't waaaaanna get uuuuup."

"Too bad!" exclaimed Ruby, wearing much more casual attire than her normal combat skirt; a red hoodie and khaki shorts.

"Oh, You should probably dress comfortably! It's gonna be a long day!"

She reached up into Yang's bunk, grasped the blonde's ankle, and tugged her sister out of her bed. She slammed into the ground with a loud thud.

"…. Okay!" Yang said unfazed, not trying to argue with Ruby on such an exciting day.

Blake was already all set, also wearing a much more casual outfit; her favorite purple t-shirt and some black shorts. She's used to being up earlier than everyone else, and had the luxury of having the bathroom all to herself because of it. She sat on her bed reading her book, a smile behind it as she watched Yang slam into the floor.

"Are you okay?" she asked Yang, not glancing up.

"Uhh, yeah! I've hit my head way harder than that before!"

The loud smack as Yang's forehead slammed into the floor also caused Weiss to spring awake. After letting out a gentle yawn and stretching her back and arms, she headed to the bathroom with Yang to freshen up.

She went with a more professional look than her two teammates; a light blue sports jacket and skirt. When asked why she dressed so formally, she replied with, "What? These ARE my casual clothes!"

Yang pulled on a yellow deep-v neck shirt that revealed her midriff and cleavage. Along with her signature brown jacket with a pair of sage colored shorts, she opened the door to the hall to chastise team JNPR.

* * *

"Hey, you guys ready?" Yang asked as she pounded on their neighbor's door. "It's breeeeeaaaaaakfast tiiiiime!"

"Alright, alright!" Jaune said through the door, "We'll be right out!"

Jaune was just about to walk out wearing his favorite black and orange hoodie, as well as a pair of faded jeans, when Pyrrha tapped his shoulder making him turn around.

"Jaune, do I look alright?"

Pyrrha wore a white shirt underneath a bronze-colored cardigan, leaving the buttons unbuttoned, letting it remain loose. A red skirt reached mid-thigh, being held in place by a tan leather belt a big, golden buckle. Tight black leggings covered her legs.

"U-Uh, y-you look fine!" Jaune stammered as he scratched the back of his oblivious head, a blush forming across his face as he looked away.

Pyrrha, rather unsatisfied by the answer, didn't want to show him that she expected more.

"Thank you," she replied, giving him a smile as she went walking past him to open the door and greet her friends.

Team RWBY stifled their giggles when they saw Nora, who was wearing a light-blue hoodie that was a little too big for her. An adorable cartoon sloth adorned the front of the hoodie, making Ruby squeal in excitement. When she brought her hood on top of her head, the face of a sloth appeared, complete with protruding ears.

"Brrrraw! Brrrraw!" she yelled, explaining that's the sound sloths make.

Ren had taken a cue from Weiss and decided to dress a bit more professionally. He sported a stark white dress shirt under a striped jade and black sweater vest and radiant-pink tie while white khakis loosely covered his legs.

"Wow, Ren! You look amazing!" commented Yang sincerely.

"Thank you." He replied, smiling. Nora scowled jealously at Yang before hooking her arm into Ren's.

"Jaune, don't you have anything else to wear?" asked Ruby, confused about why he was wearing his battle clothes.

"Oh, no- no, I'm comfy like this," he said, blushing._ 'I also forgot all of my clothes in the washroom,'_ he thought to himself as he began to walk down the hall.

The eight walked down to the cafeteria, all chatting excitedly about the plans they had for the "day before the best days ever," as Nora admirably put it.

They arrived, and after going up and gathering waffles, pancakes, fruit and whatever else they desired to consume, sat down at their table. As they looked around, they saw the rest of their classmates in their casual clothing, and it seemed they all had similar plans as them.

"So, I think we should divide into pairs," Ruby said, mouth filled with bits of pancake. "That way, we can cover way more ground, and if we see anything we think another pair might like, we can easily contact each other!"

"I agree," Pyrrha said, wiping her mouth. She turned over to Jaune, who was digging into his scrambled eggs as if he'd never eaten a day in his life. "Jaune, since we're already partners, would you like to go with me as we shop?" she asked him, her face turning a slight pink as their eyes met.

"Of course Pyrrha," Jaune replied. "I'd love to! I need to get a tux for the ball," he added as he smiled.

She smiled back, but internally, Pyrrha was squealing like a little girl over the fact that she would get to see Jaune all dressed up; she also hoped the tux was going to match the dress she was going to purchase.

However, Yang wasn't about to miss her chance to spoil the seemingly perfect moment.

"Wait! I want Jaune as my partner!" Yang interjected, throwing her arms into the air. "I thought I called it last night!" Pyrrha wanted to kill her. Her smile turned to a slight frown, and her emerald eyes locked aggressively with Yang's lilac ones.

"Well, I suppose we can all go together?" Jaune stated cluelessly as he shrugged, unaware of the disappointed look Pyrrha wore he said it. "That won't be a problem, right Pyrrha?"

_"Yes, it will be a problem, you oblivious blonde boy. That's a major problem."_ She thought to herself, but giving in to the stares she was receiving the amazon girl simply said, "I suppose not."

"Alright, I said pairs, but okay!" Ruby said with the same chipper tone, confused about why Pyrrha was giving Yang such an angry look; Yang returned that look with a shit-eating grin. "Blake! Would you like to come with me?"

"Sure." The faunus said, rolling her eyes and smiling.

"Ren! I-"

"Yes, Nora," Ren said quickly to the bubbly girl who smiled at her best friend before inhaling another pancake. Ren then looked to the rest of the group and added, "Remember to sign up for the combat tournament at the arena, and look out for any information about that mystery event. I'd rather not be kept in the dark."

The group nodded in agreement.

"So who am I to go with?" the icy heiress asked. Weiss looked at the other 7 members of her group, who wouldn't make eye contact, before adding bitterly, "Fine. I'll go by myself."

* * *

After the previous night of counseling, Vivi was peacefully sound asleep. He dreamt of his home, or what he called home, and the people he came here with. The night before, he remembered the discrimination and fearful looks he received for being a black mage. He remembered the day he and his friends travelled to Burmecia, only to see it being destroyed by things that looked just like him.

He remembered his determination and innocence...

_"I wanna find out who those guys were… and why they looked like me."_

Then he remembered when that Burmecian soldier confronted him.

_"No! I didn't do anything! I would never hurt anyone!"_

Later on, he would learn that the people who looked like him were weapons, constructed for the sole reason of death and war. Queen Brahne, former ruler of Alexandria, let darkness into her heart and tried to conquer other kingdoms with the help of the creator of said mages, Kuja. However, Kuja killed the greedy Queen and fled on his silver dragon never seen again and ceasing the production of the mages.

No longer was Vivi feared in Gaia.

_But good things don't last forever._

* * *

Zidane awoke, the digital clock on his nightstand read 7:10 AM. _'Guess I should wake the others.'_

He nudged his small, magic-using roommate gently on the shoulder.

"Vivi, let's get ready. I want to explore the town some more."

"O-Oh. Okay Zidane," Vivi replied, sitting up on his bed. "Let me get some cereal."

Zidane and Vivi walked out of their bedroom to see Steiner and Garnet already at the table, eating some fruit and toast.

"Ah, Zidane, Master Vivi! Come join us, won't you?" Steiner asked his comrades as Garnet looked up from her food to smile gently and wave to them.

"Yeah, give me a minute." Zidane said as he walked across the room and knocked on the door that connected this room to the other.

"Come in!" yelled a feminine voice from behind it.

Zidane walked in, welcomed by the smiles of Freya, Tifa, and Yuffie.

"Good morning, Zidane" the three said before going back to cooking their breakfast and planning for the day.

Cloud was on the couch and, upon seeing Zidane, grinned slightly and gave him a half-salute.

"Hey, guys," Zidane said, leaning on their kitchen table. "Glad to see you're all up. Wash up and eat, I say we get out of here by 8:45?"

"Sounds like a plan!" Yuffie said cheerfully.

Tifa smiled and went back to cooking some eggs, while Freya looked back at the map of Vale.

"That's fine with me," Freya agreed, not looking up from circling locations on 8 individual maps. "I got these from the lobby. I'm marking landmarks and stores so navigating the city for those who get lost easily will be possible." As she said this she glanced up at Zidane and smirked. Zidane chuckled, brushing the insult off.

"Yeah, yeah. But thanks, that'll help!" Zidane said as he turned around and walked back into the other room.

"The other agreed to leave at 8:45. You alright with that?" he asked his roommates, who were nibbling on their breakfast.

"That sounds great," Garnet said, her brown eyes meeting Zidane's. "I wasn't able to walk around yesterday with all the unpacking. I can't wait to see the kingdom!"

"Princess! I shall accompany you on this venture! I cannot let any filth attempt to kidnap you!" Steiner proclaimed vividly, slamming his metal-clad glove on the table.

"Steiner, I'm not going to get kidnapped."

"It matters not! I have sworn my life to yours, and I will not cheat on it!"

"Jeez Rusty, why don't you just marry her?" Zidane smirked as he asked, knowing exactly what would happen next.

"M-me and t-the PRINCESS!? How dare y-"

"I'm kidding, Steiner." Zidane couldn't but laugh at his uptight friend who had his mouth wide open in astonishment at the thought.

Garnet sipped her orange juice and smiled, and after placing down her glass said, "Actually, I was thinking that Vivi and I would explore together. Do you mind, Steiner?"

Vivi looked up from his cereal and couldn't help but smile, only to remember that no one could see the expression. However, his eyes did the work to convey his emotions as they beamed a radiant yellow at Garnet.

"R-really? Oh boy! Steiner, d-don't worry I'll protect her!" Vivi exclaimed, placing his gloved hand atop where his heart should be. "If anything happens, I'll… I'll show off my magic!"

Steiner was obviously a little upset that Garnet did not take up his offer to protect her, but he knew she was in good hands.

"I do not mind at all, Princess. Master Vivi, do your best to keep her safe!" he commanded, as Vivi acknowledged the order with a nod.

"Sure thing Steiner."

"Hey, Vivi! Way to go, scoring a date with a queen!" Zidane said cheerfully, causing both Garnet and Vivi to both quickly look down at their food. "I guess that leaves you and me, Rust-bucket. Will you go out on the town with me, my love?"

"Silence yourself, fiend!" Steiner barked, staggering finger in Zidane's face and forcing him to jump back onto one of the kitchen chairs in retreat.

Zidane regained his balance, and with a wide smirk proclaimed, "I'll take that as a yes! Alright, hurry up and finish eating, I wanna leave!"

In the other room, there wasn't much noise aside from Yuffie talking nonsense.

"I think we should find a Materia store! Maybe their magic is different here!" she yelped. Materia was the one thing she could never stop thinking about.

"Cloud, would you like to keep me company?" she asked, grinning at him.

"Okay." Cloud kept his gaze on Vale's skyline, the sun's rays parting through his spiky blonde hair. "I'd like to see the city in the light. We'll also make a trip to the arena to sign up for the combat tournament. Freya, you marked it on the maps, yeah?"

"Of course," Freya replied. After she circled all the weapon shops on her map, she was determined to make the most of the day at hand.

"I need to see if there's a place that can sharpen Dragon's Hair." Dragon's Hair, her red tipped, orange hilted lance rested neatly against the wall in her bedroom.

"Tifa, would you mind coming along?"

"Not at all!" Tifa exclaimed, a slight smile across her face. "Where should we start?"

With adventure in mind the group finished up their breakfast, and they began to head out of the inn.

* * *

With their breakfast finished as well, the students went to their lockers to grab their weapons; they planned on tuning, cleaning, and enhancing them while in Vale. Once finished, they made their way to front gates of their prestigious school. As they approached the next departing dust plane, Jaune couldn't help but feel queasy. _"Dust, I hate flying."_ He thought as they were boarding.

"You okay there, Vomit-boy?" asked Ruby playfully, tugging at Jaune's hoodie.

"Y-yeah, I'll be fine."

As they walked aboard the intercom above them buzzed to life and announced, _~Attention flyers- we will be departing in five minutes.~_

Jaune sighed internally as he closed his blue eyes, thinking about trying a new approach to flying- sleeping through the entire trip.

"Ren and I are gonna go to the upper deck! See you in a minute!" Nora claimed as she grabbed Ren's sleeve and dragged him up the dust plane's stairs.

Yang, Blake, Weiss and Ruby all took their seats, Pyrrha and Jaune following right behind. They sat in the row behind team RWBY, Pyrrha taking the window seat and Jaune to her right. She was looking out the window from her seat as well, taking in the sight of foreign airships above the colorful city of Vale.

A smile cracked on Pyrrha's face. She was excited to get Milo and Akouo tuned and polished for the tournament, but the Mistralian ball was all she could think about. _"Maybe a red dress? _She thought_, "Or gold? Getting Yang to leave us might be tough though…"_

As she pondered what her crush would find attractive on her, she couldn't help but hear a faint song being played over the dust plane's built-in speakers. It was some cheesy love song they over played on the local radio stations, but she couldn't help but feel that the lyrics described her predicament perfectly. She lost herself in the song, thinking of Jaune and the what the future might hold for them.

At that moment, she felt a weight rest on her right shoulder. She turned to see what it was, only to be met with Jaune's sleeping blonde head. _"He's asleep already!?"_ Pyrrha thought incredulously as she blushed a deep red, only wishing he were conscious. She let him stay there, the warmth of his cheeks sending static down her arm. She went to turn back around and face the window, so no one would notice her bright crimson cheeks. As she did she felt Jaune's arms unconsciously wrap around her waist and pull her tight, as a small child does with a stuffed animal.

Pyrrha couldn't help but smile as Jaune snuggled into her. Inside, she was yelping and screaming with joy. Face as red as her hair, she looked over at Jaune's messy blonde head. She placed her right hand to the top of one of his, and with the other ran her fingers through his hair. It tickled her palm as scent of his shampoo faintly reached her nose, and she smiled to herself. Before she could catch herself, she moved her face forward, kissing the top of his head. As she did so, she heard a faint *Click*.

"D'aawwww, that's so cuuuuute!" Yang snapped a photo of the moment.

"Yang! Delete that!" Pyrrha begged quietly, her blush deepening even further as Yang showed her the photo on the scroll.

"Nah. I think I'll keep it. Might come in handy!"

The two quietly argued as the rest of team RWBY snickered.

* * *

The dust plane was just about to arrive at Vale airport, and as it began to slow down, Jaune awoke from his slumber groggy, still hugging Pyrrha's waist. He paused for a moment before realizing the position he was in. His eyes went wide and his cheeks flushed. Embarrassed, he quickly let go of Pyrrha and sat up, glancing over at her through the corner of his eyes and hoping no one had noticed. He tentatively glanced over at the rest of the group, and saw Nora and Ren, who returned to sit with their team, smirked at the utterly adorable scene.

"Good morning Jaune! Is Pyrrha a good pillow?" Asked Weiss, as everyone cracked up at the two in question.

"It seemed like you were having a spectacular dream," added Blake.

"Is this how you're going to sleep from now on?" teased Ruby.

"Ohhhh Ren how cute! Did you see? Did you see?" Nora asked, bouncing.

Ren only smirked as he shot Jaune a message, pink eyes to very confused blue; _Don't mess this up._

Jaune and Pyrrha, who were both equally embarrassed, were speechless. Jaune finally piped up and said, "P-pyrrha I-I'm sorry abo-" Pyrrha smiled as Jaune fumbled adorably with his apology.

"No, Jaune. It was okay, I am your teammate after all. I'm here for when you need me." she said, placing her hand on his shoulder as the rest of their friends let out a hushed "oooohhhhhh!"

Jaune smiled back a Pyrrha. The dust plane finally landed, and the doors swung open. _~Welcome to the kingdom of Vale! Please, enjoy your stay!~_

* * *

The morning air was brisk and saturated with a faint mist, which came from a light rain that occurred earlier in the morning. As the sun shone in the sky it created a subtle rainbow across the sky as airships, from both Gaia and Vytal, swam in the un-obscured cerulean sky.

The group of 8 Gaia inhabitants made their way down to the main lobby, noticing the golden chandeliers they previously glazed over when they first arrived. This place is a lot prettier without the crowds, they each thought to themselves at their feet made their way down the red-velvet carpeted stairs.

As Zidane made his way through the clear doors of the inn, a rush of clamored sound filled his mind. The horns of cars, screeching of monorails stopping and starting on their silver-steel tracks, and the overwhelming amount of voices coming from the men, women and children walking the streets in drove.

"Jeez, how could it possibly be busier than yesterday?" he questioned a pondering Steiner, who was right behind.

"Hmm, not a clue. Isn't it quite possible these people are getting acquainted with their surroundings, much like ourselves?"

"Way to take the fun out of it."

Steiner gave a harsh look to the monkey-tailed boy, who only returned the look with an amused chuckle. Steiner grabbed the front of his shining steel armor and adjusted it into place, trying to ignore Zidane's snarky behavior.

As they stepped under the front canopy, Garnet spoke up, "Hey everyone, real quick! Tomorrow night my uncle Cid wants me to attend a formal ball that one of the Vytalian kingdoms is hosting, and I was wondering if you'd all like to go? It'll be fun!"

This sparked up a few side conversations, for no one but Garnet and Steiner were very fond of formal events, but everyone eventually concluded that they'd like to attend.

"Sure, Garnet! We'd love to go!"

"Great! He gave me a bunch of this continent's currency to spend, so everyone should probably go out to buy some sort of formal wear." Garnet handed everyone some high-value Lien.

"Garnet, we can-" Freya started, but was hushed by Garnet. "Nope! Take it and use it. That's what Uncle gave it to me for!" Freya smirked at the brunette girl before putting her Lien in her pocket.

"Alright team Gaia, listen up!" Zidane yelled, getting everyone's attention.

"Operation go-buy-some-expensive-clothing is a go! If something comes up, just call, and remember to sign up for the combat tournament at the arena!" he shouted, pounding his chest. Each pair nodded, said their goodbyes, and began to separate in different directions towards different landmarks Freya spent so much time trying to figure out. Some went directly to clothing stores, some to weapons shops.

Without hesitation, Zidane and Steiner began to make their strides towards what Freya marked on their map as the arena.

* * *

As teams RWBY and JNPR exited the dust plane, Weiss had something to say. Before they got to Vale, pairs of two were established to go around town and get shopping done. She was not in a pair. She was not in a group. She did not appreciate it.

"Okay, everyone!" she shouted frantically, getting the attention of her friends around her. "I've come to the conclusion that I would prefer not to be in the city alone, because I'd rather not have some filthy fa-" she quickly paused, glancing at Blake, who was giving her a sharp look, before she said something she might have regret, "-uh, some filthy thug try to mug me, w-with all the commotion. So, I have decided that," she turned her blue eyes towards Yang, "Yang, I wish for you to be my shopping partner. There is no reason for a group of three."

Yang looked at Jaune and Pyrrha, who returned the gaze. She then turned to Weiss, "Heh, I mean Weiss, I know I'm cute and all, but-"

"Shut-up, you dolt! If you simply keep me company, I'll buy you a dress for the festiv-"

"Sorry Jaune, looks like I'm gonna have to take a rain check on our date!"

Jaune averted his eyes from meeting hers, and before he could act he felt her plant a quick kiss on his cheek before running towards Weiss, back turned to Pyrrha. _"That ought to mess with them,"_ she thought to herself, a wide smile forming on her face as a rush of blood filled Jaune's cheeks. Without turning around, Yang could not see the look of utter enragement Pyrrha's sparkling emerald eyes were drilling into the back of Yang's head.

She didn't need to see it, though; _she could feel it._

As she ran, she grabbed Weiss by the arm and while dragging her barked, "C'mon! I know just the most expensive place to get a dress!"

As the yellow beauty and white heiress turned a corner, the other four members of the group could only look at Jaune with astonishment. _Wasn't he just snuggling with Pyrrha…?_

"Alright. Jaune, stay away from my sister," Ruby demanded, squinting her eyes menacingly at Jaune while pointing her finger at him. The look subsided as quickly as it came as she directed her attention to her partner, giddily proposing, "Blake! Lets go to the new bakery in downtown! I want some cookies!"

"Fine," Blake replied, rolling her amber eyes with a slight grin. "But lets find dresses first."

As they left, Nora and Ren followed them, Jaune overhearing that they wanted to check out the Atlasian clothing outlet that only came around this time of the year.

"Jaune?"

Jaune had almost forgotten about the red-haired beauty standing beside him after the ordeal with Yang.

"Yes, Pyrrha?" he soothingly asked turning his head to look at her.

Still vehement about the occurrence, the soft gaze deep sapphire eyes gave her made her chest cramp. She scanned his face, wishing to run her fingers down the side of it. She couldn't be mad at him- it wasn't even his fault. Still, she wondered how after years of successfully putting romance to the side and keeping her calm, collective mind intact, could he tear down her walls without even trying. She had originally planned on letting the chips fall where they may, but now she intended to place the chips exactly where she wanted them to be.

"Iiiiis there something you want to tell me?" he asked, her eyes blinking as she snapped back into reality.

"Y-yes! Well, no- I wanted to ask if there's someplace you would like to go?"

Jaune turned his head back around, placing a finger to his chin in thought. "Well, you said you wanted to get a dress? I say we do that first... If you don't have enough Lien I can cover the rest, I know how expensive these things can get," he bluntly said.

His generosity, compassion, honesty melted her heart. Pyrrha wanted to just throw her arms around him, but the little self-control she had left kept her from doing so.

"That sounds grand!"

* * *

**-The "cheesy love song" is ****_Clarity._**

**Well, that was a long chapter. Thanks Depresd for the edit.**

**Have to admit, not too much happened, but I thought that giving you guys some more exposition would be good. Also some romance, well, my attempt at it. Next few chapters are eventful so don't you worry! When I said this was going for the long run I meant it... I don't like leaving open ends.**

**Also I wrote this and put way too much effing time into it for me to back out and not publish.**

**See you all in the next chapter.**


	7. Encounter

**Early chapter. "Encounter." Hope you enjoy.**

**Recommended listening: "Final Fantasy IX- Vivi's theme" or "Final Fantasy IX OST- Cid's Theme."**

* * *

"So, this isn't Materia?"

"No, Miss, it's Dust."

"But it's a crystal."

"Yes, but-"

"And it gives you the ability to cast magic?"

"Well, no. It's a form of energy in physical form that can be used as a weapon; it is NOT magic."

"Interesting… Still sounds a lot like Materia."

Yuffie questioned the old man they saved the night before, irritating the customers around her who were trying to stock up before the festival.

"Well, thanks for the help, I guess…" she muttered as she walked out the front door to reunite with Cloud, who stood leaning against the building's frame.

"Get what you were looking for?" he asked, noticing her disappointed and rather confused expression.

"No! No one has any freaking Materia! All they have is this, this DUST stuff! He says it's not magic, but energy, and can be used as a weapon by a user… sounds like Materia to me dammit!" She roared, flailing her arms in every which way.

Cloud laughed at the ninja's frustration. "We have enough Materia, Yuffie."

"Yeah, but that's not the point!"

"Hmm?" Cloud stood straight up, raising an eyebrow.

"What's weird is that no one around here has heard of Materia. They look at me like I'm nuts!"

Before Cloud responded with, _"Because you are…"_ He felt a quick tug from behind. More specifically, he felt a tug on his fusion sword. "_Who the fu-"_

Cloud turned around angrily, to face what he believed was the world's dumbest thief. What he got, however, was the smiling face of an orange haired girl; her bright blue eyes marveled at his weapon.

"Woooooooow! Mister you have a HUUUGE sword!" She exclaimed, turning to her black haired, magenta-eyed boyfriend. _"Poor guy,"_ Cloud thought, as he brought the attention back to the hyperactive girl.

"Excuse me, but would you mind telling me why you were touching my weapon?" Cloud demanded. Yuffie stood beside him, arms crossed.

"Well!?" she asked as her frustrated gaze met the boy's face. "_Well… helloooo…"_

"I'd like to apologize," the dark haired boy answered with an sincere look on his face, glancing over at the girl, "on behalf of my friend. She doesn't mean any harm. She's just very curious in nature." The boy smirked as the girl pouted.

"He's right!" she exclaimed, "but it's true, right Ren!? Just look at that thing!" the orange hair girl added.

"Nora, please," he shot her a look that froze her in place as if by magic before turning around to face Cloud and Yuffie. He held out his hand, "I hope you are not offended. My name is Lie Ren. My partner here is Nora Valkyrie."

Nora, acting as though her name were an 'on' button, bounced in front, also holding out her hand, "Nice to meet you!"

Cloud and Yuffie were bewildered. _"What on earth causes this girl to be THAT hyper… is that a hammer?... and why does she have a sloth on her shirt?_" Cloud's thoughts raced as he shook Nora's hand, then Ren's. "Cloud Strife."

Yuffie pushed Cloud away as she stood in front of Ren, inspecting his face thoroughly. She tilted her head, as if in awe, and placed her fingers on her chin. After a few seconds however, Nora noticed the girl's flirtatious behavior and before she could tell her to "back off," Yuffie sprang to life and extended her hand, grabbing Ren's tightly.

"My name is Yuffie! Ninja-extraordinaire! Materia expert! But most of all, single!" she exclaimed, meeting Ren's confused eyes. She gave him a slightly seductive smile before turning to greet Nora.

Before Yuffie could try to flirt more with Ren, who had since returned to his usual stoic self, Nora took the chance to strike. She latched onto Ren, "We're students at Beacon Academy! What kingdom are you guys from- where did you get that sword, Cloud- where did you get that pointy colorful circle Yuffie!?"

Cloud smirked; the girl's questions amused him. "We aren't from around here. We're from Midgar, which is in Gaia. Thus, our weapons are from Gaia," Yuffie chuckled as the two students gasped in amazement, knowing they've never seen Gaians before.

"Really?! Oh my goodness- wait, wow, you've got to tell us all about it!" Nora feverishly requested, grabbing onto Ren's sleeve as she jumped in place.

"To be honest, I was hoping to meet some Gaians so I might learn what I could. Cloud. Yuffie. I'd like to offer to show you around Vale if you're not otherwise preoccupied. In exchange, perhaps you could tell me about where you come from?" Ren asked, hoping to get a positive response.

The two from Gaia exchanged soft grins and shrugged, agreeing to the request. They had yet to sign up for the tournament or get any sort of formal wear, so getting a tour from people who were familiar with the area would prove more helpful than trying to decipher the scribbles Freya wrote on their maps.

"Sure," Cloud said, Yuffie nodding in agreement.

"Yay! Quick everyone come here!" Nora pulled out her scroll and stood in front of their new friends. She squeezed everyone in tight and held the scroll out with extended arms before squealing, "Cheeeeeese!" as she took a picture.

She examined it- Ren and Cloud weren't smiling, but Yuffie and Nora had Cheshire cat-like grins.

"It's perfect!" she declared before sending it to her group of friends un-captioned and without context.

Noticing this, Ren quickly slipped his scroll out of his pocket to text the rest of the group. "Made some Gaian friends. Be jealous."

* * *

Ruby skipped down the street as Blake followed behind, wishing her partner would slow down just a bit. After purchasing some simple dresses in their favorite colors, they were on a mission to locate _"Dali's Desserts,"_ the new bakery that just opened up in town. Neither of the two liked to dress up very much, so buying a dress wasn't too difficult. They didn't have a preference to the style of the dresses, so when Blake found a nice black one and Ruby a red one, it was the end of that.

Trying to find the bakery was proving to be a much more daunting task however, mainly because neither of the two actually knew where it was. They assumed it was in the commercial district, and decided to wander until they happened upon it.

"Oohhh! Blake aren't you excited!" Ruby squealed, her childish enthusiasm reminding Blake that Ruby was, in fact, a full two years younger than the feline faunus, "I heard that their cookies have TWICE the amount of chocolate chips Beacon's has!"

"Sounds wonderful," Blake replied in her calm voice, not wanting to dampen the child's dreams of finding the perfect cookie.

She sighed, and in that moment both girls' scrolls suddenly vibrated in their pockets. They reached for them, only to be utterly jealous by the picture and follow-up message they received. _"Made some Gaia friends. Be jealous."_

"Awww! Blake, I hope we meet some people from Gaia!" Ruby wailed, examining the picture shining on her mobile device.

"I'm sure we will," Blake answered, trying not to say more than what she needed to say as she replaced her scroll to its home in her back pocket. "Now, back to the matter at hand… where is this bakery?"

"No clue! Wanna ask someone?"

"Sure, we can do that. Wait here."

Blake walked into the nearest shop to ask whoever was working for some directions. Ruby looked down the street, squinting as she tried to see if Dali's Desserts was just hiding in plain sight. As she scanned the buildings that lined the busy streets, she couldn't help but notice a blonde, monkey-tailed boy gazing up at a store's sign. Being the excitable young girl that she was, the sight of her new faunus friend made her gasp in delight.

"Sun! Suuuuuuuun!" she shrieked, trying to get his attention. With no luck, she watched the boy walk in to the store he was in front of. Blake walked out of the store she was in, beginning to tell her redhead friend that the dessert shop was actually right down the road. Before she could even pronounce a syllable, however, Ruby grabbed her wrist and began to run in the direction she of the faunus boy.

"Ruby! Wait, what are you doing!" a shocked Blake scolded, trying to pry her wrist from Ruby's mighty grip. For a young girl her grip was surprisingly strong, and being trapped in it wasn't exactly the best feeling in the world.

"I saw Sun! Let's go say hi!"

Ruby dragged Blake down the street until she saw the same door the boy walked through. She brought her gaze upward to see where the monkey-faunus had decided to go, delighted to find that it was in fact the very place she had been dreaming about for weeks; Dali's Desserts.

Ruby squeaked as she gave a wide smile to Blake, who reluctantly returned it to girl that practically ripped her arm out of its socket. As Ruby reached for the golden door handle the door came alive and swung backwards into her face, knocking the poor child back a few feet onto her rear and causing her to drop her shopping bag.

Stars and poorly drawn beowolves circled her throbbing head, her ears ringing from the impact. Blake rushed to the girl's aid, yelling at the man who caused the commotion; strangely enough he was equally as flustered. Ruby's blurred vision began to clear, and as the stars began to fade she turned her attention from the ground upward.

Before her stood a man entirely clad in silver armor, a cute feather on his head. His expression was of utmost concern.

"My goodness! Oh, my sincerest apologies! Please, allow me to make up for this!" he exclaimed.

"Wha-what?" Ruby asked, shaking her head as her hearing finally came back.

"Here, please take my hand, Miss!" said the man, still giving her an empathetic look.

"Thanks," Ruby said, letting the knight pull her to her feet. As she stood, a gentle aroma of baked goods filled her hyper-sensitive nostrils; her silver eyes trailed towards the brown paper bag nestled in the man's other arm.

"Ar-are those cookies?" she asked, disregarding the fact that he nearly knocked her out.

"W-well, yes, they are! My, you have quite a keen sense of smell! Oh, please, accept them as an offering! It's the least I can do to make amends!"

Ruby nodded ecstatically, the thought of free cookies erasing any memory of the incident that occurred only mere moments ago.

The knight knelt down on one knee and held the bag up with both hands towards Ruby, making her giggle with delight. Blake rolled her amber eyes and smirked slightly at the goofy scene playing out before her. With his head down he pled, "Please Miss, will you accept my apology?"

"Yes, Sir knight, I do!" Ruby said with glee as she snatched the bag. She eagerly opened it to reveal a baker's dozen of warm double-chocolate chip cookies; even Blake couldn't help but drool at the overly stimulating aroma.

"Rusty, what are you doing?"

The knight's head shot up as he heard the voice of his blonde partner. Slightly embarrassed, he immediately stood up and slowly faced the bothersome boy, revealing his slightly flushed face.

"I-I accidentally knocked over this civilian and needed to repay her with … my cookies." The knight's eyes avoided the monkey boy's face, knowing eye contact would only encourage the boy to poke fun.

However, the blonde boy didn't chastise the knight.

"Well, which one was it?" He asked, walking over to the two girls who were still completely immersed in the scent and taste of the fresh cookies.

"The one in the red." Steiner said, pointing to Ruby as she munched on cookies.

The blue-eyed boy suddenly closed in on Ruby, who looked up from her bag long enough to register the handsome face before her.

"Who- what, wait! " she exclaimed, jumping back a bit as she looked at the boy's tail. "You're not Sun!"

The boy furrowed his brow in curiosity, _"Sun… that's the name Cloud gave me. Do they know him?"_ He pondered the possibility for a moment, before pushing it aside. He could ask at a later time.

"Nope! The name's Zidane, Zidane Tribal," he stated, pointing to his face as a wide grin spread across it.

"This here," Zidane said as he kicked the knight's shin, "Is Adelbert Steiner, also known as Rusty. It's up to you what you want to call him, because apparently, he almost knocked you out!"

"It was an accident!" Steiner explained, still jumping in place because of the kick he received to his shin.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that," Zidane added, rubbing the back of his head. He brought his gaze back to the girls, meeting their eyes back and forth. "Listen, is there anything else we could do for you? I'm sure getting hit in the face by a full grown man isn't an everyday thing, so let us make it up to you."

The girls stood there and stared at Zidane incredulously. The charm this boy had was unreal- Jaune could take a few notes from his book. They had thought the cookies were enough, but the absolute sincerity in his voice told them he disagreed. The girls were both speechless, their hearts melting as he awkwardly laughed and smiled at their stunned silence.

The boy was interesting, catching a bit of attention from Blake. She understood how Ruby could have mistaken him for Sun- but Zidane was actually quite… different. His face was much more gentle, allowing him to show how much he cared about repaying Ruby. A faunus, who cared so much about repaying a human girl any way he could. She was impressed by his generosity, but quickly pushed the thoughts aside.

The two pondered for a moment, the thoughts of money or other objects quickly pushed away. They supposed that maybe the gentlemen could purchase them dinner at a shop, but that was throw out the window when Ruby blurted out what seemed reasonable at the time.

"You could _make_ us dinner..?" Ruby shyly proposed, looking off to the side immediately after she realized what she just said. _"What. The. Hell. Did I just do?" _Blake turned at glared at Ruby. They just met these two men and she's asking them to make her dinner?

"Ruby, you can't be serious." Blake coldly stated, causing the redhead to chuckle nervously.

"Well… I…"

Zidane chuckled and looked back at Steiner, the man obviously confused by the offer. The two girls continued to bicker over the request, giving Steiner a minute to think. He was going to immediately shoot the idea down… However, he did just hit a girl's face with a door.

"By all means, it would be our pleasure!" He finally exclaimed, kneeling once more before a warm-hearted Ruby. "Your wish is my command!"

Ruby and Blake looked at the knight in astonishment. They never thought he would agree to such a strange request, but the fact that he did made Ruby yelp in excitement.

"Jeez Rusty, going all out with the treatment. Do you even know the girls name?"

Flustered at his inattention, he could only let out an "-uh-" before choking on his own breath.

Zidane took pleasure in his friend's frustration, turning his attention back to the amber and silver-eyed girls.

"Well, you heard the man! You've got yourselves a deal! But I think we should at least know who you girls are on a first name basis- unless you prefer being called "Miss" by my lovable partner here."

Blake laughed at the joke, surprising Ruby. _"I've never seen Blake laugh…"_

"My name's Blake Belladonna," the cat faunus said, shaking both the knight and thief's hands.

"And I'm Ruby Rose!" the chipper scythe-wielder proclaimed, mouth full of cookie as she too shook the hands of her new friends.

"Well, nice to meet you, Blake and Ruby of downtown Vale!" The girls let out a quirky giggle and Zidane looked over to Steiner, who was now standing and smiling.

Being a knight, he was very well accustomed to eating lavish meals. Not to mention, back home he fought off monsters with one of the most odd chefs he'd ever known- so it could be said he knew his way around the culinary arts.

"Miss Rose, Miss Belladonna. I wish to know if you had a certain meal in mind which pertained to your liking, or if you would kindly trust my skills as chef-in-training!" he suggested, saluting them.

The girls looked at one another, sending a mental message between them.

"Surprise us, Rusty!" joked Ruby, looking to Zidane for approval of her name-calling. Zidane smiled; his new protégé in making Steiner miserable had just been selected. However, Steiner was not affected. Actually, he thought the spunky girl was actually rather adorable.

"I accept this challenge! Now, would you be so kind as to lead Zidane and I to the nearest market? We shall need to re-supply if we are to host the finest Gaian feast this land had ever seen!" Zidane rolled his eyes at the knight.

"Rusty, this is the only Gaian feast this land has seen."

Blake and Ruby froze.

"D-did you say Gaian? As in, FROM-Gaia!?" Ruby couldn't contain her enthusiasm as she ran over and hugged the knight's cold armor.

"Uh- Yes, Miss Rose! Zidane and I are from Gaia, coming to partake in the festival!"

Ruby began to ask questions, and even though Blake was also excited knowing Ren and Nora were in a run for their money, something was off. _"Do faunus also live in Gaia? Are they treated the same way?"_

She was aching to ask Zidane about the faunus population in Gaia, but she hesitated. It can wait, she thought to herself. No need to get all up in his face about it yet. The people are already staring at him; better not bring up a sore subject.

Ruby, on the other hand, couldn't stop asking questions.

"Whoa, whoa!" Zidane exclaimed, taking a step back before smiling graciously as he basked in the attention the girls were giving him. "We'll answer all your questions! Let's just get to the market first!"

With that, the four began to walk down the street with Ruby in the lead. She quickly turned, her scroll in hand, before taking the picture and sending it to her fellow students.

_"Second team to meet Gaians! Woot!"_

* * *

**8 down, 8 to go. The Ren/Nora and Cloud/Yuffie scene is short because look at who we're dealing with. Two stoic guys and two chipper girls. I'll let your own imaginations sculpt how the tour went! You don't need me to do that... (Yuffie and Nora annoy the crap out of Cloud and Ren).**

**Up next: "Nascent"; The last two pairs of Gaians meet the last two pairs of Beacon students. Who will meet who? Idk. Don't ask me.**


	8. Nascent

**Why do I kill myself and write long chapters. I guess when I read fic, I like the chapters to be longer too... Well, hope you guys feel the same way.**

**CH 7: Nascent. Haven't said it in a while- I don't own RWBY or FF.**

* * *

Tifa and Freya took advantage of their day by checking out the local weapon shops. It turned out to be much more difficult than expected; some shops refused to serve Freya because she was, as they consistently put it, "a filthy faunus."

After a couple hours of searching, one shop in particular was generous enough to help- and that's all they really needed. Freya successfully got Dragon's Hair sharpened, and she was able to relax and study the foreign killing instruments with her equally curious friend, ignoring the looks she got as they went on. Tifa, perfectly happy with Premium Heart, tagged along as she inspected each weapon carefully. As they continued through store after store, they noticed a common theme to the Vytalian weaponry.

Everything is also a gun.

"I guess ranged combat is the way to go around here," concluded Freya, "Not exactly my taste, but whatever gets the job done."

"I'm sure there's a reason," Tifa added, also not the type to use ranged weaponry, aside from magic. "Everyone has their own style. If I need to hit something far away, I'll just use my Materia."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," admitted Freya, "I've never been able to find out how to wield magic. Cloud tried to teach me, but it just never happened. I just don't think I'm just not able- so I let Vivi take care of it for me."

Tifa smirked at the remark; thinking about how strong of a magic user Vivi is for such a small body. "He's a master in his own way."

The duo continued to window shop as they walked, but it didn't take all too long for their interest in Vytalian weaponry to disappear. Their curiosity now satisfied, they decided to cross off the next item on their "to do list": purchasing formal wear for the ball. They switched their focus from weapons to clothing, but the many store owners continued to act in much the same manner. Their refusals to help Freya sparked heated arguments between the shopkeepers and Tifa. Tifa would fight with the managers and tell them how disgustingly stupid they acted, but it was eventually mulled over when Freya would convince her friend to exit the store. It wasn't uncommon for malicious insults to follow them on their way out.

This hurt Freya slightly. She had been discriminated against before, but never over such trivial things like this. However, Freya was strong. She quickly brushed away the pain and didn't let anything get to her. She was proud to be Burmecian, regardless of what this continent had to say.

* * *

They continued to walk, stopping at each clothing store they saw. Unfortunately, one after another, stores continued to vehemently deny Freya business. Tifa had given up trying to argue, and one shop even went so far as to threaten Freya with violence should she come inside, to which the duo simply rolled their eyes at the foolish shop owner and walked away to try another spot.

They chatted amongst themselves, trying to figure out what a "faunus" really was and why it had such a negative connotation, until they came across a large red sign that read _"Mistralian Outfitters."_ Figuring they might as well try their luck Tifa and Freya walked inside, both expecting a harsh and angry welcome. Much to their surprise the workers greeted them kindly with warm smiles; it was a refreshing reprieve from the rest of the day, and Freya let out a small sigh of relief. They were the only two in the shop- aside from a messy-haired blond boy looking through the Mistralian tuxedos.

As Tifa and Freya walked up and down the aisles of clothing, they eventually found some dresses they liked and went to the changing area to try them on. There, they saw the blond boy once again, and while passing the boy, Freya noticed two things: the fact that he was trying to hide the tuxedo he just purchased in a bag under a slew of dresses, and his weapon. After spending half of the day looking at mechanized, mecha-shifting weapons, she caught sight of what seemed to be just a plain sword secured in a white sheath at his side. Tifa noticed the seemingly ordinary sword as well before turning her attention back to Freya, nudging her playfully.

"Let's ask him if it's also a gun," she whispered with a smirk.

* * *

Jaune stood beside the changing room, waiting to hand Pyrrha another dress. As his mind began to drift, he thought of a half-naked Pyrrha behind nothing but a thin wooden door. He quickly shook the thought away, blushing in embarrassment at the fact he thought of his teammate in such a manner. He quickly began to think about other items such as how he was going to hide his tuxedo from his red-haired friend until a tap on his shoulder took him out of his trance. Jaune to turned and was met with the smiling face of a stunningly beautiful brunette girl. As his insecurity made its forward from the recesses of his mind, he blushed and turned to his original position. He felt the tap again. The girl spoke this time.

"Hey, you! Why'd you turn around on me?"

"I-I don't work here." He stammered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned to once again face the brown haired bombshell. The girl looked at him quizzically, then began to laugh.

"No, no, I knew that! I wanted to talk to you."

"M-me?" Jaune choked as he nervously kicked at the ground. The girl smiled, amused by the boys social awkwardness.

"Yes, you, stop being silly!" Tifa remarked, "Anyway, to be more specific I wanted to ask about your sword. Is it a gun too?"

"What? My sword? No, it's just a plain old sword. Nothing fancy like everyone else has..."

Jaune had been so distracted by the girl in front of him he failed to notice the other girl standing behind her, who suddenly threw her arms in the air.

"Finally!" she barked in relief. "You have no idea how great it is to finally meet someone who just wields a normal blade. Hi! I'm Freya, and this is Tifa."

"Jaune," he replied, a smile forming as he began to feel more comfortable. "I was never really trained to use a gun, so I just kind of just stick to the whole swish-swish stab approach, y'know?"

Freya and Tifa gave a reassuring look at Jaune and knew exactly what he was talking about.

"We're from Gaia- we have guns, but nothing like this."

"Wha- Oh man- you're from Gaia!? I'm from Vytal!" Jaune exclaimed, kicking himself internally for saying something so obvious. At the mention of this, the three chatted lightly for a few more seconds about their homes before a voice came from the changing stall directly behind Jaune.

"Jaune? Can you hand me that other dress?" it called, a slender hand reaching over the top of the door.

"Sure thing, Pyrrha!" Jaune chirped as he ran to the door. He placed another dress in her hand gently and watched as it was pulled into the stall.

"Thank you!"

Jaune returned to talk more about the festival and all that was going on, but turned to face gentle Gaian smiles. He looked at them, confused.

"She your girlfriend?" asked Tifa, enjoying how Jaune squirmed and blushed at the term. "I take that as a yes?"

"N-no! We're just friends," he responded shyly, averting his gaze to the floor as his face turned even more red.

"Hey, hey! Calm down! I didn't mean anything by it," she teased as she laid a hand on Jaune's shoulder.

As if on some silent cue, the beautiful amazon girl came out from the changing stall before the three.

"Jaune, how do I loo- who's this?" the red haired girl asked, her narrow emerald eyes glancing at Tifa, who still had her hand on Jaune.

"Oh! Pyrrha, this is Tifa, and that's Freya! They're from Gaia! Oh, this is so exciting!" he cheered. Freya couldn't keep herself from noticing the amazon's interest in the boy; it was actually rather obvious from the glare she was giving Tifa.

Catching on, Tifa quickly removed her hand and presented Jaune with a chance at redemption.

"Jaune, I think your friend was going to ask you a question."

The amazon's eyes softened, and she smiled at Tifa before looking back to Jaune.

"Oh? What was it Pyrrha?"

"Well, I wanted to ask you how I look in this dress?"

Jaune, being too wrapped up in meeting people from Gaia, didn't even notice the dress until now. He scanned Pyrrha up and down, mouth slightly agape as he stood in stunned silence. The dark crimson Greek-style dress hugged her figure, showing off her curvaceous body without sacrificing modesty. A golden sash was tied just below her chest, complimenting the golden circlet in her hair.

"Well?" she asked eagerly, giving a full 360-degree turn and, unwittingly, even more of a reason to remain in a frozen stupor.

Pyrrha was still upset about the unsatisfying response he had given her this morning, and wanted to try again with something a bit more elegant. She figured that since Nora and Ren weren't around, Jaune might be more inclined give a little insight about what he really thought instead of the buddy-buddy response he gave her before. _"But now, with two complete strangers, is he going to shut down?"_ She thought, smiling at Jaune to try and encourage a response.

"Hey, Jaune… she asked you a question. You should answer!" Tifa chimed in, looking at Pyrrha with wide eyes. "C'mon, tell her somethin'!"

_"You sound like Yang,"_ Jaune thought, knowing he wasn't going to get away with the anything short of what he was truly thinking.

"Y'know, the longer we wait, the more we want to hear," commented Freya, taking pleasure in the boy's discomfort.

"Fine, fine! You two aren't helping," he whispered to them as they giggled.

He gave out a quick sigh, preparing himself for what was to come. He knew he had to go all out, giving his friend a response that he truly felt. _"No holding back. Come on Jaune, you can do it."_

"Pyrrha," he started, all three girls focusing on him intently. He gently reached down and placed the amazon's hands in his. "I think you look absolutely beautiful."

Pyrrha's face looked down as she blushed profusely and internally squealed, the "awwwww"ing of Freya and Tifa not helping her hide her happiness. She wasn't expecting an audience, but the fact that Jaune said what he said in front of two complete strangers made his genuine comment all the more satisfying.

"I'm going to change back- I think I know which dress I want," she said, quickly retreating into the stall. "I hope you ladies are still here when I return; I wish to hear all about Gaia!"

Tifa and Freya grinned, happy they met a somewhat-couple they could spend the day with. They went into changing stalls of their own and eventually picked out a dress, meeting up with Jaune and Pyrrha in front of the store. Tifa walked towards them, grinning.

"Hey, Jaune, didn't you already buy something? We didn't get to see it!" she asked, pointing to one of the bags in Jaune's hand.

"Oh- no, it's- uh, for my friend! He wanted… this style." he sheepishly stated, smiling and chuckling nervously. The three girls smirked at his lack of ability to be smooth, but conceded easily and walked out the doors with them.

"Wait!" Jaune cried, making them freeze in front of the store.

"Can I take a picture of you three? I want it for my scrapbook."

All three girls were moved by his cute request, and agreed.

"Okay! 1… 2… 3… Smile!" He snapped the picture. Content with it, he smiled and they all started walking, chatting about the tournament, Mistral, Vale, and, of course, Gaia. As they walked, Jaune took the opportunity to send the picture to his comrades.

"Can you tell which are Gaian?"

* * *

"Vivi, look!"

"Wow…"

The mage and queen stood in front of a spectacular sight- the royal castle of Vale. Much like Lindblum, a high wall surrounded the castle so they were a decent distance away from the castle itself- but that didn't take away from the magnificence the architectural behemoth exhibited. Built upon higher ground, the castle towered above the rest of the city and cast a grey silhouette down upon the buildings below. Several towers surrounded the main keep; a giant monorail track ran through them, the occasional train zooming past.

They watched as airships docked and departed from the castles sides as its white walls glistening in the sunlight.

"It's beautiful…" Vivi murmured, getting a sense of vertigo as he looked up at it.

"Reminds me of home. We're so far away," Garnet responded, placing a hand on her short friend's shoulder. "Anything else you'd like to see?"

"Well," Vivi quickly considered, still studying the monolith, "We already did something I wanted to do. Why don't we do something you'd like to do?" Garnet smiled at the mage's cute response.

"I would like to get an outfit for the parades and ball tomorrow…" she hinted.

Vivi turned to Garnet and nodded, and as he did so he saw a yellow-clad, long-haired blonde girl dragging a white haired girl into a shop just a block down. It's sign read in giant white letters,_ "7th Heaven Designers."_

Vivi, seeing some dresses in the windows, looked back to Garnet with excitement. "Let's go there!"

* * *

Weiss was not amused. Being from a very wealthy and powerful family, she was able to afford the angelic and elegant dresses that lined the aisles of stores such as _7th Heaven Designers_ and _Golden Chocobo_. Hell, the designers knew her on a first-name basis. Being in such a store was an everyday event.

Yang, however, was not from a family of wealth and power. She never had the opportunity to buy a dress from a place like this. She was only able to window shop and browse, never able to afford such clothing like Weiss bragged about; now that she was finally able, and never one to miss an opportunity, she decided to torture her friend in the only way she could at the time- by enthusiastically and obnoxiously finding her perfect dress, no matter how long it took. It was working.

She had been in the dressing room for 15 minutes now, taking her time examining each dress she put on to make sure it was perfect. If it wasn't, it went sailing over the top of the stall, followed by a very loud, "NOPE!"

"Yang!" yelled Weiss as she picked the rejected fabric up off the floor, "Stop doing that! And by DUST! Hurry up!"

"Sorry, Snow Angel," Yang replied, slipping on the next dress she had lined up. "No can do! That one was nice, but didn't show enough, y'know?"

_'No, I don't know, not all of us are as lucky as you…'_ she thought as she sadly glanced downward before snapping back and continuing to yell. "Don't call me that! It's bad enough Jaune still does!"

Yang couldn't help but smirk as she studied the dress she was currently in. "NOPE!"

Weiss walked over to pick up yet another reject and return it to its correct spot, fuming at the way Yang was acting. _'I'm buying her a dress! Why am I suddenly her servant!?' _She bent down to grab it, and upon standing up heard a voice behind her- due to her fugue state of mind, it sounded like Yang's. It could have been an old man's, and it still would have sounded like Yang's.

"Um, excuse me mis-"

"WHAT!?" Weiss shrieked, spinning around to smack who she was assumed was Yang- however she was met instead by a short haired brunette girl clad in an orange jumpsuit. The brunette girl gave Weiss a shocked and apologetic stare, and Weiss' cheeks flushed in embarrassment of her outburst. She raised her hands and waved them to indicate she hadn't meant to give the girl such a harsh tone.

"Oh-oh, my! I'm so sorry, I-I thought you were someone else," she managed to say, running her fingers through her ponytail like she used to do when she was a little girl. "P-please, go on!"

The brown-eyed girl accepted Weiss's apology, giving her smile. "It's okay, I could tell you were frustrated by…" she gestured towards the door of Yang's changing room. "But, I was just wondering if you were using the other room?" The brunette then pointed to the second changing stall, which Weiss was standing in front of for the majority of the time she were there.

"No, no I'm not! By all means," Weiss said, standing aside.

"Thank you!" The girl walked in, and Weiss went on to continue yelling at Yang to hurry up. Yang obviously had no intention to do so, so Weiss had to find something to occupy herself so she wouldn't completely lose her mind while waiting. She walked over to a row of blazers, but as soon as she saw one she somewhat liked another screeching "NOPE!" came from Yang's stall, this time followed by another voice that yelped, "Ah-oof!"

Weiss rushed over to the changing stalls, seeing a little boy in a large brown hat that tripped another one of Yang's dresses. She ran to his aid, helping him unravel his feet from the mess of yellow cloth. "Oh my goodness, are you alright!?" The boy stood and turned around, meeting Weiss's petrified gaze with his yellow eyes and pitch-black face.

"Y-yeah, I-I'm fine, thanks." He picked up the dress he was carrying before he tripped and proceeded to knock on the door the brunette girl was in.

"Hey, Garnet, I found this nice white one in your size. It's really soft!" He slid it under the door, receiving a "Thank you, Vivi!" before returning to the white haired girl. Weiss, who was still internally questioning what in the world race the boy could be, gave him an unsure smile.

_'He's not a Grimm, there would be markings… but he… he has no face… just eyes… how does he talk?'_

Before she knew it the mage's hand was outstretched, asking for a proper handshake for helping him up moments ago.

"T-thanks again, Miss. I'm a little clumsy sometimes," he confessed, letting a shy giggle escape afterward. Weiss took his hand cautiously, introducing herself to the mystery child.

"It wasn't a problem at all, honestly. I'm Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company." Of course adding in the part where she was an heiress wasn't necessary, but she thought that if he were thinking of pulling any stunts, knowing who he was dealing with might dissuade him.

"Nice to meet you, Weiss! I'm Vivi."

"Vivi, does this dress look nice? Be honest!"

Weiss and Vivi turned to look at the brunette girl, who now wore an elegant, strapless white dress.

"Wow! You look phenomenal! I think you should buy it." Vivi, being the genuine boy he was, jumped in excitement at how good his friend looked.

"Aw, thank you!" the girl responded, letting a slight blush cross her face. "Let me change back, I'll be right out!"

"NOPE!"

Yet another dress came flying from the first stall and dropped next to Vivi, who now realized what had tripped him up. Weiss strode over and picked it up, yelling, "YANG! If you do not pick a dress in the next 30 seconds I AM LEAVING!"

"Fine, fine your majesty! I found one 10 minutes ago anyway…"

The brunette girl walked out of the stall, glancing over at Weiss and Vivi, overhearing Weiss explain why she was vehement at the infamous "Yang" girl. She walked over to the two, asking for the blue-eyed girl's name as she shook her hand.

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company." Weiss repeated, still untrusting of the two in front of her. The brunette smirked as Weiss explained who she was.

"I'm Garnet, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

At that moment Yang slammed her door open, holding the dress that was lucky enough to be chosen.

"Hey! Who are these people? Did you miss me so much you had to replace me?" she asked, snapping her gaze to the little mage. Yang was never a girl to discriminate. So what if someone was different? But the little mage that stood before her….

"Oh. My. DUST. You are the CUTEST little guy everrr!" she squealed, picking Vivi up in a tight embrace.

"U-uh miss? I-I-I'm not really that comfortable…" he cried, trying to squirm free.

"Yang! Put him down!" shouted Weiss, frantically apologizing for her friend's rash actions.

"Oh, come on Weiss! You can't blame me!"

"You don't even know him!"

"You're right!" Yang bent down in front of Vivi, "Hi, I'm Yang! Nice to meet you!" She reached her hand out.

Vivi, trying to keep his eyes from drifting down, quickly shook her hand. "Vivi."

"And I'm Garnet," the brunette added, introducing herself to the curvy blonde. Yang perked up, and the four made for the clerk working the cash register.

"That's a really nice dress Garnet," Vivi said as Garnet gave her lien to the shopkeeper, "Everyone girl in Alexandria will be dying to know where you got it!"

"Alexandria?" questioned Weiss, a puzzled look spread across her face. "Where in Vytal is that?"

"O-oh, it's not," Vivi continued, causing Weiss to furrow her brow even further, "It's a kingdom in Gaia."

"GAIA?" Yang gasped as if what he just told her was the deepest, darkest secret she'd ever heard. "DO YOU MEAN WE MADE FRIENDS FROM GAIA!?"

Vivi turned his gaze to Garnet, who both shared the thought, _"Is she really that excited…?"_

"Y-yeah we are," Vivi answered, unaware of the cost he would pay for it. Yang couldn't contain her excitement, and swooped in to embrace the small mage once again. It was strong enough to break his bones- if he had any.

"P-please, I'm begging you…"

"Sorry! I'm just so happy!" Yang exclaimed, an ashamed Weiss face-palming and looking away to pay for Yang's dress.

"I've GOT to tell the others!" she continued, pulling out her scroll and snapping a quick picture of her new friends.

"Perfect!" she exclaimed. The photo showed Yang with her tongue stuck out, a smiling Garnet, an expressionless Vivi, and Weiss, mouth wide open, arms in the air, and eyes beaming of fury. The four walked out of the store, laughing at the picture on Yang's scroll.

"Well, it was very nice meeting you. But Vivi and I need to go to the arena- Vivi's going to participate in the tournament!" Garnet exclaimed, giving Vivi a gentle but encouraging pat on the back. The Beacon students turned around and stared at the small, black creature.

"You're a fighter?!" asked Yang, hands on her hips. "You're quite the boy! Mind if we come along? We're participating as well!" Vivi gulped at the thought of Yang fighting. Her hugs hurt, imagine getting punched in the face…. After a few seconds to ponder, he concluded that he'd like the extra company.

"Sure!" he said, bringing out his map from his pocket.

"Hey- we live here!" Weiss stated, motioning Vivi to put the map away. "Just follow us."

The four made for the arena, satisfied at what a great pre-festival day they were having.

* * *

**All aboard for Arkos choo chooooooo**

**Hope you're all enjoying the story wooooooooooooo **

**Next time: CH 8: "Overcome."**


	9. Overcome

**Remember when I said I write really really long chapters**

**Well here's a really really long chapter**

**CH8: Overcome. Recommended listening: "Final Fantasy 9 OST- Bran Bal." **

* * *

Zidane and Steiner were more than determined. In the beginning, making dinner for the girl Steiner smacked in the face with a hardwood door seemed like a chore. However, as they began to spend more time with the girls, they became more eager to prepare a proper meal for them. The two ran around the market, throwing a whole array of foods into their respective baskets. Carrots, ziti, cucumbers, tuna, ground beef- if it made it into the basket, the boys had a plan for it.

Outside, the girls just looked on in amazement. Ruby couldn't help but giggle every time Steiner tripped or stubbed his toe into a counter that held the food- he had a lack of grace that amused her. Blake, on the other hand, couldn't keep her eyes off of Zidane. She smirked at the way his tail would grab extra items that he couldn't reach, and the way he dodged other customers with such elegance and precaution that he resembled a breeze rushing through them. They called him names and scolded him, but he just laughed and walked away, which impressed her the most. Itt amazed her how easily he was able to push all of the discrimination aside.

She quickly snapped out of this trance however, somewhat ashamed. _'I'm watching him gather groceries, not serenade me! What's in Dust's name is wrong with me!'_ The two men began to make their way back to her and Ruby, baskets filled to the brim with Vale's finest fresh produce.

"Hey," Zidane greeted them, throwing Ruby a red delicious apple.

"My favorite!" she remarked, giving Zidane wide eyes. "How did you know!?"

"Lucky guess," the thief sheepishly replied, rubbing the back of his head.

Steiner walked in front, and with a triumphant tone said, "Miss Belladonna, Miss Rose! I have gathered all necessary materials for tonight's feast! Before we head home, is there anything else you wish to do?" Ruby and Blake thought a minute, before a look of shock came across both their faces.

"WE NEED TO GET TO THE ARENA BEFORE IT CLOSES!" they both yelped, running in the direction of the massive coliseum.

"I guess that's a yes," Zidane said to Steiner as they both followed the girls, albeit at a much slower pace. "I guess they're competing too?"

"It would appear so, but such girls seem much too innocent to be proficient in the art of combat."

"Well you saw the weapons they were carrying… Ruby's was almost as big as yours or Cloud's, and Blake's looks like it could cleave my head off easily."

"I suppose we'll find out when the time comes," Steiner answered. "If they're anything like the Princess, we're in for a show."

Zidane smirked as he thought about how far Princess Garnet grew as a fighter. The sweet, innocent smile backed behind a whole array of weapons, ranging from her healing staff to the face to Odin himself. If these girls were anything like her…

"We'd better catch up," he said, starting to jog. "It's a shame they didn't think about this earlier!"

* * *

Tifa, Freya, Pyrrha, and Jaune had already signed up for the combat tournament earlier that day. After teasing Jaune at the store, they went right to the arena- each pair playfully debating who would beat whom. They continued to stroll around Vale, the Vytalians teaching the Gaians about the history and facts of their continent and vice versa. Their talk about the Great War in Vytal was interrupted, however, when the Gaians began to hear familiar voices behind them.

"Tifa! Freya! Hey! Don't ignore me, dammit!" The group of four turned around to see their monkey-boy and knight friend waving and walking towards them.

"Hey guys," Tifa greeted, smiling as they walked over. She introduced them to Jaune and Pyrrha, who exchanged names with excitement over the fact that they met even more Gaians. Jaune was in awe over Steiner's armor and sword.

"Wow, a real knight! Your armor- is your sword GREEN? I'm a knight too- w-well, not a good one, but Pyrrha here has been helping me train." He nudged Pyrrha lightly, who smiled helplessly. "Do you have any tips!? Y'know, on how to be a good knight!"

"Thank you, Jaune!" an ego-inflated Steiner exclaimed. "Remember that, as a knight, one must always protect his comrades-in-arms; no matter the cost!" He unsheathed Excalibur II, raising it into the sky, much to Jaune's delight. The two talked about the ideals of being a knight as Zidane rolled his eyes and shook his head.

_'Jeez, just when I thought Steiner was cheesy enough,'_ thought Zidane, who brought his gaze to Pyrrha.

"Hey, Pyrrha is it?" he said with as much charm in his face as he could use, "Ever been on an airship?"

The girl laughed, "Why, yes I have."

Zidane thought for a moment, _'Huh that usually works on the Gaian woman…'_

"Well, we have an airship of our own. Maybe you could come check it out!" he added, giving her a smile.

"Maybe, someday," Pyrrha said cheerily, getting a sense of pleasure as she felt a jealous Jaune shooting looks at her. Tifa saw what Zidane was trying to do, and decided to squash it. "What's with all the groceries?" she asked, looking at the baskets. Zidane began to laugh hysterically, and pat the knight on his armored back. "Ask Rusty."

Steiner looked at the four in front of him and sighed. "I accidentally hit a girl in the face with a door, and the way she and her friend want us to make up for it is by… cooking them dinner." Tifa's group began to laugh alongside Zidane, who eventually caught his breath long enough to ask his friends if they would like to join. They had plenty of food, and planned on having to feed more than just himself, Steiner, Ruby and Blake.

"Sure, I'm in!" Jaune eagerly agreed, Pyrrha as well.

"Us too," Freya added, "But where are the girls you're talking about?"

Steiner flushed a bit, "They ran to the arena to sign up for the tournament. They made haste, and lost us! Did you see them pass by? One was wearing a red sweatshirt, the other a purple tee shirt, a rather large black bow on her head?"

"Wait- red sweatshirt? Black bow…?" Jaune questioned as he looked over at Pyrrha, who was thinking the same thing. "Did their names happen to be… Ruby and Blake?"

"Well, small world isn't it?" asked Zidane, shaking his head as Steiner's face froze with complete confusion. "Unreal. Well, let's find them." They eventually caught up with the two girls, who were equally happy to find their friends from Beacon and make acquaintances with Tifa and Freya. Tonight would prove to be a night to remember for them all.

* * *

Yang and Weiss dotted some I's and crossed some T's, putting their final touches on the combat tournament registration cards. When Yang was finished, she picked Vivi up so he could reach and fill out his card.

"Thanks," Vivi said after he was done, brushing his coat when Yang put him down. "Being short sucks sometimes."

"But you're just so damn cute!" Yang squeaked. Weiss also finished her card and looked to Garnet- she wasn't filling out anything.

"Garnet?" she asked, "Are you not participating in the fights?"

"No," Garnett mumbled quietly, looking at the ground. "I'm not much of a fighter. I specialize in white magic. I have to spend the time with my Uncle anyway, so I'll be watching from the sidelines and rooting for everyone!" She perked up, showing her excitement to spectate her friends doing what they do best.

_'White magic?'_ Weiss questioned in her mind, but decided not to pay much attention to the odd terminology. "So, you don't fight?"

"Well, I do," Garnet added, "But I usually tend to stay back to heal my friends. Zidane and Steiner say they don't like when I get too close to the front line."

_'Oh, so she uses healing dust. I guess they call it white magic in Gaia.'_ Satisfied with the answer given, Weiss smiled before turning back to Yang and Vivi.

"Hey Weiss," Yang started, cracking her knuckles. "I'm hungry. Buy us dinner!"

"Now wait just a minute!" Weiss retorted, hands on her hips. "Is that how you ask?" A slight grin spread across her lips, for even ice-cold heiresses get hungry.

"Pleeeeease!?" Yang begged, pouting and giving big puppy dog eyes. "Vivi said he wanted to try some new food!"

Vivi didn't say anything about being hungry.

"I also heard him say how pretty you were!"

Vivi said no such thing, but after Yang nudged his shoulder lightly, he figured what she was doing.

"Y-yeah, Weiss. I'm kind of hungry and I don't mind paying for everyone. I just don't know any restaurants." Weiss's heart warmed at the sound of the Vivi's innocence.

"Nonsense," she replied, warmth in her tone. "My treat."

"Wow, thank you Weiss!" said Garnet, placing her hand on Weiss's shoulder.

They began to walk out of the arena, and as they reached the grand entrance a blur of red and black rushed past them, a faint _"HeyGuysCan'tTalkGottaGoBye!"_ left in the air as it passed.

"W-What?" Yang stammered, looking in back into the arena where the blur ran towards along with the other three members of her party. Instead of seeing the two who caused the blur they were met by a perky orange haired girl and bashful brunette skipping out of the arena's tall arch with two stoic men, one with blond hair the other black, a pink stripe on the side.

"Hey! Did you guys just sign up for the competition!? We didn't see you! That place is so big! There were so many people! Oh, Ren, how many people do you think there were!?"

Yang brushed some hair to the side as she saw the group approach. "Vivi, Garnet, I'd like you to meet Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren, two of our friends from Beacon." She pointed to the light blue eyed girl and pink-eyed boy. "The other two…" she quickly scanned the blond man in all black up and down, her eyes sparkling slightly, "We don't know them."

"We do," Garnet replied, her lips curling into a grin, causing Weiss and Yang look at her in curiosity. "The tall man is Cloud Strife, and the brunette is Yuffie. They're good friends of ours."

Nora and Ren approached, shaking Vivi and Garnet's hands as they introduced themselves. Nora squeaked about how little Vivi was while Ren sort of stared curiously, studying the boy. Vivi was used to it.

"Long time no see." The blond man came over, waving to Garnet followed by a fist-bump with Vivi. Following his lead, the short haired brunette girl hugged Garnet before turning to Vivi, embracing him in a bear hug exactly as Yang had.

"I see you made some friends," Cloud noted, lightly punching Vivi's arm. "Good going, ladies-man."

Vivi let out a chuckle as he introduced the ladies to Cloud and Yuffie. Cloud noticed the curious stare Yang was giving him, but pushed it aside. _'Not interested.' _However, Yang made it obvious that she was.

"Hey, you guys want to join us for dinner? We're going right now," she asked rather shyly as she looked at Cloud, uncommon of a usually excitable Yang. "Snowflake here is buying." Before Weiss could protest, Nora was already begging to come along.

"Weiss! You're buying!? Oh, can Ren come!? And Yuffie and Cloud!? Ohhhhh thank you!" She ran to Ren and hugged him, excited about getting some dinner with the newly formed band of misfits. Cloud looked at Yang's lilac eyes. He was going to decline, but he would be in the company of his friends from home- so he decided to go with it. "I suppose."

"Yay!" Yang exclaimed, jumping next to Cloud and grabbing his arm. This, however he rejected asking, "What are you doing?" coldly. Yang retracted her hands from his arm, letting loose a defeated, "Sorry…" before going back and walking with Vivi and Garnet. _'Boys never reject me like that….'_

Weiss didn't say a word. She knew it had been decided. She simply turned around, and started walking towards her favorite restaurant, the other seven following behind.

* * *

As the day went on and turned into sunset, an orange tint encompassed Vale. Shadows grew longer, and the streets grew quieter. Zidane's group, now joined by Jaune's, headed towards the Goodsprings Inn as the day grew darker behind them. A sense of relief filled the Gaian travelers, glad they didn't get lost this second time around. Steiner rushed to the front doors of the hotel and held them open for the rest of the group.

"Thanks, Rusty!" Zidane said as he walked in. The rest of the group also said thanks as they walked inside, amazed at the interior of the building.

"For as long as I lived in Vale," Ruby stated, "I've never been here."

The students admired the beauty of the red carpets and marble pillars. The chandeliers lit up Blake's eyes as she stared at them, wondering how long it must have been to construct such a work of art.

"You guys act like you've never seen a hotel before!" Zidane exclaimed as he began to move forward. Upon approaching the stairs, he jumped up two of them, turning to face his party. They stopped, and with all eyes on him, Zidane gave a smirk.

"Last one to the room has to wash the dishes! It's number 404!" Each member of the group exchanged glances, fire in each of their eyes.

They began a mad dash up the stairs- even Steiner, who protected his groceries with both metal-plated arms. Ruby flashed away in a flurry of rose petals, Tifa and Freya used their excellent jumping abilities to swiftly ascend the stair cases in only a few attempts, and the rest that had no such luck with speed or jumping were left to duke it out on the stairs. The faunus girl looked to Zidane as they began to run up the second set of steps, and with a quick flick of the wrist she wrapped the boy's ankle in Gambol Shroud's ribbon, causing him to trip. Turning to fall sideways so as to not to crush the groceries, Zidane looked up just in time to watch the girl responsible zip past.

"That's cheating!" he yelled, trying to stand back up. Blake just smiled, and continued ahead. Pyrrha had a very similar idea, using Miló in its javelin form. She looked back at Jaune to flash him a smile before throwing her spear through the hood of his sweatshirt, sending him flying backwards and pinning him into the floor at the base of the stairs.

"That's also cheating!" Jaune bellowed, trying to pull the javelin from the carpeted floor, with no luck of prying himself free.

"I'm sorry!" yelled Pyrrha as she made her way up the third set of stairs, her and Blake's giggles fading as they reached the fourth floor with Steiner. Jaune closed his eyes for a moment, thinking about all the dishes he'd have to scrub tonight._ 'Always losing. I can't even climb stairs correctly.'_

"Hey, wake up!" Jaune opened his eyes, looking up to see Zidane standing above him. Zidane grabbed Miló and tugged, finally releasing it from the floor it was embedded in.

"Wow, that girl is strong. Need a hand?" Zidane reached down to Jaune, grabbing his hand and pulling him to his feet.

"Thanks, Zidane," Jaune said, rubbing his arm in embarrassment. Zidane grinned, patting Jaune on the back.

"Don't worry about it!" he asserted, before adding, "Looks like we're doing dishes together!"

Jaune looked up at Zidane, "Really? Y-you're going to lose… with me?"

Zidane shrugged. "Yeah, why not? We both got cheated- so might as well make the ones who forced us to clean feel bad, right?" A sly grin worked its way across his face. Jaune was relieved. Better yet, he was excited. Not to wash the dishes of course, but to strike guilt into Pyrrha and Blake? Oh, it'd be so sweet. They began to climb the stairs, chatting about the girls that put them in this position.

"Sorry about hitting on Pyrrha earlier," Zidane confessed, scratching his head. "I didn't think you two… y'know… were like THAT."

Jaune stared at Zidane, baffled. "W-what do you mean?"

Zidane looked back, confused. _'Wow, he's dense.'_ "We'll have a talk later, let's just focus on getting back."

Jaune nodded in agreement and they made haste, finally reaching room 404. No one was in the hall, so they both assumed the others were all inside.

"Well, here we go…" Zidane said as he opened the door. He motioned for Jaune, who followed him inside.

"There's Zidane and- oh, Jaune came in last! Guess who's washing diiiiisheeees!" Ruby sang, bouncing up and down on the couch with Tifa and Freya.

Tifa smiled at the blond boys. "I have some yellow rubber gloves you can wear!" she joyfully stated, getting laughs from the rest of the "winners."

"Yeah, yeah! Laugh it up!" responded Zidane, placing his groceries on the kitchen table before putting his arm around Jaune. "Actually, you have two losers! We were," he glanced at Pyrrha and Blake, "unfortunate enough to come in the room at the same time! So, I guess we're both washing dishes." Zidane got Jaune's attention and quickly motioned towards Pyrrha and Blake, who were sitting together across the room. The two girls exchanged slightly remorseful glances before returning their eyes on the blonds. Jaune let out a slight chuckle, knowing the plan worked.

"Well!" Steiner said, arranging his groceries on the table. "Shall we get started Zidane? The troops are hungry!"

"Can I help too?" Asked Jaune, rushing over to the table. "My mom taught me how to cook, and I've been wanting to try out some new recipes she sent me!" He froze, thinking, _"Dammit I keep forgetting to stop using the mom card…" _All the girls in the room giggled, especially Pyrrha, for she knew just how much Jaune treated his mother like a queen.

"Of course, Jaune" Steiner said, taking Zidane's groceries and sorting them as well. "I'll need every man on the job to prepare this feast for our comrades!" Steiner's chivalry and respect towards women made the girls let out a unified "aww," which made the knight to blush. Steiner removed his helmet and began to retrieve all the necessary cooking utensils needed to prep the meal.

"Well, isn't this sweet!" exclaimed Freya, looking at the girls around her. "All three men are cooking for us? This is unheard of!"

"Yeah, don't get used to it!" smirked Zidane, who grabbed a pot and wooden spoon. "Jaune didn't even need to volunteer. Steiner here is obligated, as am I for not baby-sitting him. So, I think you should thank Mr. Arc!" The girls all looked at one another and then back to an already flushed Jaune.

"Thank you, Jaune!" the all shouted. As Jaune turned around to hide his face, he let out a gracious, "Aww, stop! You guy's are the best." With Jaune still turned around to begin arranging materials, Tifa, Freya, Blake and even Ruby glared at Pyrrha. Pyrrha knew what they were screaming at her in silence. She needed to do a little bit more to thank Jaune. She stood up, walked over to Jaune with her hands behind her back, and paused behind him.

"Yeah, Zidane- could you just pass me a lemon? I need it for the seasoning."

Emerald eyes wide, Pyrrha side stepped to his left. Jaune caught her out of his periphery, "Hey, Pyrrha! Any requests?"

"No, just watching." She said as she smiled softly. The boy turned back to his work and moments after he heard, "Jaune?"

He looked back towards Pyrrha- and before he could fully turn to her to ask what was up, she leaned in and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. "Thanks for making us dinner."

Jaune turned a deep red. "It's my pleasure, Pyrrha." He smiled at her, and she turned back to the rest of the girls who were all at the edge of their seats in excitement.

"Alright there tiger," Zidane addressed Jaune with a punch to the shoulder. "Time to go to work, show her what you can do."

* * *

The aroma of chicken broth, fresh garlic and thyme from Zidane's soup saturated the air. It was a perfect blend of celery, carrots, chicken bits, rice, and ground pepper- a whole barrage of ingredients hand picked by Zidane earlier that day. With Jaune's help, he was able to perfect it. The five ladies sat at the kitchen table; which was again combined with the table from the other room connected to theirs. They sat and waited in silence, each of them mesmerized by the first course of the meal. Their eyes followed the three chefs working their arts, captivated by the culinary talk they threw around. Zidane taste tested the soup, giving spoons to Steiner and Jaune as well who basked in the flavor.

"Zidane… this is magnificent!" exclaimed Steiner, as he took another spoonful from the giant pot. "Where did you learn this?"

"A chef never reveals his secrets! Or is that magicians?" replied Zidane, who thought about what the saying actually was. "Anyway, shall we give the girls a chance to eat?" His sous chefs nodded in agreement as Steiner lifted the pot and placed it onto the center of the double table. Jaune passed around bowls and spoons, while Zidane followed his footsteps and ladled large spoonfuls of soup into each bowl Jaune placed before each girl. The boys then went to the head of the table where no one was sitting with their arms behind their backs. As they cooked, they secretly agreed to make this meeting as formal as possible- just to mess with the ladies' heads.

"Madam's of Gaia! Madam's of Vytal!" announced Zidane, putting his best Steiner impression to use. "Before you is chicken rice soup with assorted vegetables, simmered to perfection. Enjoy." The three men scurried back to the kitchen to prepare the remaining courses.

After snickering at the silly introduction, the girls each placed a spoonful of the golden soup into their mouths. It tasted better than it smelled. Explosions of flavor came from every bite; the chefs could hear slurping and their eager chatter as they dove into the pot, getting seconds.

"Well, we're in it to win it now." Zidane said softly. "Jaune, what can you do with fish?"

* * *

It's safe to say that each of the five were entranced by Zidane's work. They each pondered about the boy, some more than others, about what they knew, and about what they've yet to find out.

Blake was one of the two that thought much, much more about him. The soup was astonishing to her. Between every spoonful she caught herself watching him cook, his interactions with Steiner made her laugh and his brotherly-love towards Jaune made her heart melt a little. She learned a lot about Zidane after spending practically the whole day with him- but there was still so much that caught her by surprise. She didn't know why she felt this way, why she gave him so much attention. _'Is it a crush?'_ she thought, glancing at the boy in question. She was never one to give in to such emotions, nor have boys really caught her attention much before. _'No… no, he's just a nice boy. I'm over-thinking it, plus he's way too immature for me anyway.' _

Blake looked up from her soup to wipe her mouth- as she did; she caught Ruby staring at the boy with the same eyes she'd been giving him.

The soup was demolished. It was a light appetizer, and while it set the ladies hunger aside for a short while, it came back with a vengeance as they waited for the next course.

"What's taking so loooong?" groaned Ruby. "You can't tease us like that and make us wait forever for the next set!"

"Ruby… relax," Jaune calmly said, smiling at the young girl. "It's been ten minutes."

"Ten minutes too long." Grumbled Ruby, slouching in her chair. She was then suddenly brought back to life when Steiner let out a loud, "Wha-laa!" The smell of pasta, lobster and tuna fish drifted in the air. Steiner slowly brought his creation over to the table, placing it before the hungry eyes, as Jaune did the same with a smaller platter of his own.

"Ladies! I present to you lobster-stuffed ravioli, buttered and under a vodka sauce. Thanks to Chef Arc and…" Steiner hesitated, receiving a quick jab in the side from Zidane, "_'Master Chef'_ Zidane, on the next platter you'll find tuna fish steaks, seared to a light pink and breaded, on top of some buttered ziti. Please, Zidane, if you will?"

Zidane nodded and walked around, this time with plates and forks, placing some ravioli and a single tuna-steak in front of each of the five girls.

"Enjoy!" yelled Steiner, as the men once again ran back to the kitchen to prepare meals of their own.

"Oh. My. Goodness." Blake had never tasted better fish in her life. She cut the fish with care, letting it melt in her mouth. "This is heaven," she said, closing her eyes. _'Okay. His culinary skills are impressive. But that's not enough to say I have a crush, there's still so much I don't know about him, and his antics are still questionable,'_ she internally declared. However, as she took another bite she pushed away the part of her brain telling her that she was only denying the inevitable.

"Have you guys tried this ravioli? By DUST I think I'm going to cry!" Ruby couldn't get enough of the lobster-filled pasta. Sure, the tuna was good- but the ravioli reminded her of when her dad used to cook for her. It tasted just as good- no this was better. On the topic of her father, though… actually… a lot of what Steiner did reminded her of her him…

Tifa and Freya looked at each other and smiled. Tifa looked to see if the men were looking; when the coast was clear she whispered, "We should make them do this a lot more often."

"Agreed," Freya smiled. "We just need to make Steiner feel guilty, which is never hard with Garnet around." They laughed, and went back to immersing themselves in their friend's creations. Pyrrha, like Blake, was enjoying her meal immensely. Each bite was a cascade of wondrous textures and flavors. The fact that Jaune had been the one to prepare this for her made the meal all the more tastier. She glanced up at the boy and saw him cutting fresh strawberries on a wooden cutting board. She squealed in excitement, delighted that he had remembered her favourite fruit. She forced herself to go back to her pasta, attempting to focus on admiring Steiner's craft rather than whatever Jaune was doing. The fish was just too amazing, though. Pyrrha looked up to sneak another peek at the boy who won her affections so easily, but was drawn to a pair of bright amber eyes instead. She met Blake's gaze, and saw the tinge of regret in her eyes. Blake glance over at the kitchen to make sure the boys were still busy cooking, then leaned across the table.

"I feel bad," she whispered to the fiery haired girl. "We should be the ones to clean the dishes." Pyrrha agreed, nodding slightly as Blake took her seat, along with another piece of fish. She also felt bad. _ 'The boys are working so hard to create this meal for us, and to have to clean up after our mess as well just isn't fair.'_ She brought her gaze to the rest of the table- each girl was also giving her the slightly sad look Blake had. To her side, Ruby whispered, "We overheard you and Blake. We're in too."

Pyrrha nodded, smiling. _'What a wonderful group of people.'_

The pasta and fish were gone. The girls were rather full, but they could still have whatever the boys decided to dish out and were ready for dessert. However, dessert was not exactly going as planned.

* * *

"Alright guys, we kind of have a problem... I totally lost the strawberry crepe recipe," Jaune whispered as he frantically searched the counters for his mom's hand-written recipe.

"What! You serious?" asked Zidane quietly, looking back at the girls who returned his glance with curious stares. "They're expecting dessert, Jaune!"

"Yeah!? Well, I lost it!" Jaune exclaimed in a hushed tone.

"No matter, Jaune," Steiner said, "We have plenty of fruit, we can make a fruit salad."

"Rusty, that is so lame," Zidane replied, giving him a disappointed look and a shake of the head. He sighed, "We have no other dessert recipes on hand, huh?"

"Nope,"answered Steiner and Jaune in unison.

Zidane shook his head, but quickly came up with an idea. "Jaune, keep chopping strawberries and Steiner peel some oranges… We'll go through with the fruit salad."

* * *

"The moment you've all been waiting for!" Jaune yelped, his voice cracking a bit as he tried to keep up appearances. The girls all smiled and giggled at the goofy boy who stood at the head of the table, silver platter in hand.

He placed it down, revealing a decorative arrangement of fruits. The girls all looked at it with curious expressions, before Ruby piped up and asked, "Soooo, anything else?" Each girl thought the same thing, curious as to why the gentleman hadn't whipped up an amazing creation like they've been doing throughout the night.

Jaune tensed up as he rubbed the back of his head, "Well, I, uh-"

"We're treating you all to ice cream!" Zidane yelled, jumping in front of Jaune. "Making it would take too long, so after you're fed up with fruit, we'll head back down into town for a bit! I saw some ice cream places near here and we were thinking we could get some fresh air!" Jaune thanked Zidane quietly for saving him from the embarrassment of telling the girls he lost his mom's secret crepe recipe.

"That sounds great!" Ruby chimed, reaching at the fruit platter with her fork.

"Yes, I'd like that," Tifa added, "Why don't you guys eat now? We'll wait for you to finish, so no rush!" The girls all nodded and agreed, before chatting amongst themselves. The three chefs gathered the meals they prepared for themselves and sat at the couch, Steiner in the middle.

"Good going, Zidane," Steiner praised, "Very quick thinking."

"Well," Zidane started, "I figured it'd be better than leaving them with just a platter of fruit."

"I agree," Jaune added, taking a bite of his fish. "Thanks again."

The trio ate in silence after that, pretty exhausted from all cooking. They dug into their food, getting seconds and thirds from the dishes and bowls they set on the coffee table before them.

"Jaune, Steiner, Zidane," started Blake, causing them all to look up at the five women across the coffee table. She looked at all three men before meeting Zidane's eyes, "We would just like to say thank you again."

"You worked very hard and just know that we appreciate it very much," added Pyrrha, who blushed as she looked at Jaune.

Ruby smiled and nodded, "You're the best!"

Tifa came up and gave the boys a thumbs-up, asking, "So, this happens every weekend right?"

The trio let out an exhausted sigh, followed by a, "Hell no." Freya laughed and thanked the chefs as well, before all five walked back to the kitchen. The trio finished their food and sighed, as they knew what was about to come. Dishes. Steiner had agreed to help clean with Jaune and Zidane, knowing that they'd need all the help they could get. They made their way to the kitchen, only to see the five girls cleaning every single item used.

"No! You sit down right now!" barked Ruby, who was scrubbing the soup pot. "We can handle this! You deserve to relax. We'll call you when we're done."

The three men didn't argue, smiling thankfully at the girls as they went back and sat on the couch.

* * *

After about 5 minutes of work, the ladies were finished.

"That wasn't so bad," Blake said, "Then again… we did have five people."

The ladies chuckled as they went back out to the living room, greeted by the smiles of the three chefs.

"Ready?" Zidane asked, standing up with Jaune and Steiner.

"Yep! Let's go!" Ruby exclaimed, grabbing one of Zidane's cuffs and leading him to the door. Blake furrowed her brow at Ruby as she walked with Zidane before catching herself. Everyone else followed suit, heading towards the closest ice cream parlor.

With their flavors selected, they all decided to roam the city a little bit. They didn't stray too far from the hotel, but they wanted to do something besides sitting on the available benches outside the parlor. Eventually, the eight came across a weapon shop that Ruby immediately took much interest in.

"Oh! Oh! Can we go in for a second? Please?!" she begged the group, receiving chuckles and rolling eyes. Pyrrha was equally interested, as were Blake, Tifa, and Freya, for none of them had ever been inside this particular shop.

"I'll go with you," Pyrrha said with a smile, following the red hooded girl inside. The other girls followed them in, leaving the men to themselves once again.

"You interested in going in, Rusty? Jaune?" asked Zidane as he looked at his friends.

"Nope, not in the slightest," they replied.

"Cool. I guess now we can get some man-talk done."

"Some wha?" Jaune asked. He's been at Beacon for a while now, and his only male friend was Ren. Ren was a man of few words, and they never really had anything that could be considered "man talk". In fact, it was difficult for Jaune to imagine what exactly "man talk" meant.

"Come on," Zidane motioned, and the three went over and sat on the bench nearest to them.

* * *

"So, Pyrrha," Tifa began as she fiddled around with a spear that could shoot explosive darts, "Now that the boys aren't around… what's goin' on with our favorite Jaune?"

Pyrrha grew red as she knew where this was going, "Did you only come in to ask about that… and is it that obvious?"

"Yep, aaaaand yep!" Tifa replied as she smiled cheerfully. "But the real question is, does HE know?"

* * *

"So what did you wanna talk about?" asked Jaune as he reclined on the wooden bench.

"I think you know," Zidane replied, smirking at his new friend. When Jaune shook his head obliviously, Zidane made his question as blunt as possible, "When are you gonna tell Pyrrha you like her?"

This caused Jaune to spring up from his seat in shock, looking at Zidane in confusion. "Is it that obvious?" he asked, growing red.

"Oh come on," Zidane replied, "You serious?"

Steiner spoke up, "Yes Jaune, in the limited time around you even I could see you have feelings for her, which I think may be mutual. She's quite the girl, you should tell her sooner rather than later."

"I know, I know!" Jaune cried suddenly, much to the other two's surprise. He put his hands on his head and groaned loudly before sitting back down next to them. "Honestly, I sort of caught on a few weeks ago during one of our training sessions. It sort of just 'clicked' in both of us. I started to look at her more than just a teammate and friend and to my surprise, so did she. I guess I was just in disbelief. I still am. She's… she's just so perfect. While she's been helping me a lot, I just don't see myself as worthy, y'know?"

"So you knew?" Zidane asked, still confused as to why Jaune thought so little of himself.

"Yeah, for a while. I mean, I think so. She always blushes around me, and lately she's given me quick pecks on the cheek when I do something for her. Sometimes, when I go to shower and change after training I can see her peeking at me. Now that I really think about it, she's not exactly subtle about it." Jaune paused as he let out a slight smile, "As much as I'd love to have her, I'm just playing oblivious hoping that she'll find someone better. Someone who really deserves her. Guess it's not really working, considering how this day's been going."

Jaune closed his eyes and tilted his head towards the ground, burying his head in his hands. Zidane grinned and put his hand on Jaune's shoulder.

"Jaune, look… don't just let something or someone you want walk away. Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it."

* * *

"But what if he doesn't like me in return?" Pyrrha asked. "He never seems interested or catches on to my advances. I don't want to ruin our friendship, nor do anything to put the team at risk."

"I don't think that's the case," Freya said, sparking hope in Pyrrha's eyes. "I think you should just tell him."

"Maybe…" Pyrrha considered, growing somewhat insecure at the thought. "I-it's just… I was hoping the perhaps he'd be the one to tell me he liked me. I've never done something like this before, so I'm worried that I'll put myself out there only to be shot down." This caused the other four girls to give Pyrrha a saddened expression, except for Ruby. She simply smiled and shook her head.

"Nope."

"Nope?" Pyrrha asked curiously.

"Nope! Listen, you care about Jaune, right? Well, Jaune was my first friend here, and I kind of know how he works. I've seen the way he looks at you. The feelings you have are totally shared by him, especially since you started training together. No matter what happens, I think you guys will be okay. I say go for it!"

"But when should I tell him?" Pyrrha asked.

* * *

"Maybe you're right, Zidane..." stated Jaune as he stared into his hands, "I mean, after all that's happened lately I was actually planning on asking her to the Mistralian ball… maybe that'd be a good place to tell her?"

"I think that'd be great, man. It'd be all romantic. Girls love that mushy crap. Oh, and that ball? Guess who's gonna be right there with ya!" Jaunes eyes widened as Zidane nudged him playfully in the side.

"No way! Really!? Awesome!" Jaune high-fived Zidane and Steiner. Having his wingmen there would totally relieve the stress. "So, you gonna ask Blake?"

"Heh- maybe you aren't as dense as I thought Jaune."

* * *

"So, I'll tell him at the ball. Even if he doesn't ask me to attend it with him?" Pyrrha was anxious over the plan.

"Yep, that seems appropriate. Boys usually don't like mushy settings, but it'd be perfect for a guy like Jaune," Freya replied, smiling encouragingly at the red-haired amazon.

"Thanks, guys," Pyrrha said, looking around, "I appreciate this." However, she hid her feelings of slight bitterness. She had been singled out by the other four and made to answer personal questions about her crush. While she truly appreciated their help and support, Pyrrha did not enjoy the helpless feeling of being the only one under the spotlight. Luckily, she had an idea to take the attention off of her, at least for the moment. "So, Blake," she started, causing Blake to jump in her seat as her eyes widened in fear. "I noticed you couldn't keep your eyes off of Zidane the entire night. What's that all about?"

The other three girls' eyes widened in curiosity- a certain scythe-wielding girl's in particular.

* * *

**Whoa that was long wow much words**

**Teenage girls and their feelings woooooo**

**Will Steiner be a fatherly figure for Ruby? Idk**

**Will Blake admit her crush on Zidane, leaving Sun in the dust? Idk**

**Major plot BS is coming in the next few chapters. No more dilly dallying. The festival BEGINS after next CH. I know I've been sort of keeping the story happy-go-lucky, which is the point. Later chapters... will be much, much darker. #spoilers.**

**Next time: CH9: "Valor." Dinner scene with Cloud, Vivi, Yang and all them. Plot setup and some subtle romance.**


	10. Valor

**Shorter chapter. Quick update: CH10 will be treated as the "1/3 finale." I have written content up to then, and have a little extra, but I need some time to get a good queue going. So I will be going on about a (2? week) hiatus to have a good amount written so chapters will be published quickly after then. That's after NEXT chapter, which is SUPER long and a good way to leave you all wondering what's gonna happen next.**

**CH9: Valor. Recommended listening: "Memoria: Final Fantasy IX music Extended."**

* * *

Weiss pushed open the glass door to "_Dragon Pass_," her favorite restaurant in all of Vale. It wasn't exactly the most classy or even the most expensive place, but when she was younger her father would take her to this exact restaurant whenever she received excellent marks in school. Although her reason for coming was mostly sentimental nostalgia, she had also chosen the spot because their food was actually fantastic. Plus, she hadn't visited in a while.

On the outside it looked like an everyday place, but once one entered it was anything except that. A dimmed lobby made of brick walls and a hardwood floor greeted customers. The rest of the restaurant could be seen through a tinted glass panel separating it from the lobby; the same brick wall and dark hardwood floor style dominated the dining area as well. Gorgeous crown molding lined the ceilings perimeter. The main dining hall hosted a pianist, who played a peaceful serenade on a classic grand piano atop a stage set in the center of the room. A golden chandelier was poised above him, flames dancing on the candles.

"Table for eight, please," Weiss told the host, who promptly led them to a large black boothed table with maroon leather cushions on either side.

"Wow, no wait?" asked Yang as she took her seat across from Cloud and Vivi.

"Not when you're heiress to one of the most powerful companies in Vytal," replied Weiss with a cocky grin as she sat next to the busty blonde.

Nora and Ren filled in after Weiss, leaving the table to be split- Gaians on one side, Vytalians on the other. It was just more comfortable this way, plus it allowed them to talk face to face with their new friends.

They all picked up their menus and perused the wide variety of selections offered. While this may not have been the fanciest restaurant in Vale, it wasn't exactly too far behind. Lobster tail, swordfish steaks, filet mignon, prime rib, clam chowder- if it was expensive, it was on this menu.

"Do you think they have chicken nuggets?" Nora whispered to Ren, who chuckled at the question.

"I don't think so, Nora," he whispered back.

A waiter came by, introducing himself with a bow before asking what they'd like to drink. The drinking age was 18- therefore, no one at the table was legally eligible to purchase an alcoholic beverage, Cloud and Yuffie being the exceptions. Yang and Nora pouted at this, and prepared to order soda when Weiss raised her hand, "Yang and Nora would both like a strawberry sunrise each," she said pointing to the two girls respectively, "And Ren would like a rum and cola. Vivi, Garnet, would you like anything?"

"No, it's quite alright," answered Garnet, "I'll just have ice water, please." Vivi followed suit, ordering water as well.

"Strawberry sunrise?" Yuffie asked, "It is good?" Yang and Nora nodded their heads excitedly. "Alright! I'll take one too!"

The waiter then looked to Cloud, "Anything for you, sir?"

Cloud looked up from his menu for a moment, meeting the waiter's stare. He slowly returned back to his menu, "Root beer would be nice. Thank you."

The waiter nodded and walked away. As he did so, Yang, Nora, and Ren turned to face Weiss, who wore an amused grin.

"How'd you do that? He didn't even card us!" Yang exclaimed happily.

"Like I said," Weiss said before brushing some hair aside, "Being an heiress has its perks. My father practically owns this place." She patted down her sports jacket and rested her hands on the table, giving everyone a smug look.

"No arguing there," Ren said calmly, "Thanks." They all went back to their menus, trying to decide what they wanted to eat. Eventually the waiter returned with their drinks, and after he placed Cloud's root beer down he walked away for a few more minutes to give the party a little more time to finish deciding on their orders.

"Hey Spikey, can't hold your alcohol?" Yang asked with a sly expression across her face, sipping on her drink.

"Nope." Cloud replied curtly, not looking up from his menu. Yang was getting a bit annoyed at the lack of attention she was receiving from the blond. Actually, it was his utter lack of interest in everything that was getting to her. _'I don't care that he shot me down earlier,'_ she told herself, _'I mean yeah, he's cute… and, okay, maybe I was a little disappointed… but he lacks interest in everyone. I shouldn't feel like this.'_

Also, she didn't have anyone else to tease or flirt with. Ren was boring, and she was sure that Yuffie was doing the job just fine. Vivi was just a kid, and well, not human, so that wasn't exactly okay by her standards. But Cloud? She saw him as an opportunity to make a fun day even more so, but he wasn't cooperating at all. She needed someone to tease and talk to; without Ruby, Blake, or Jaune she needed a new target.

The thing was, any guy at Beacon would be head over heels to even be talking to her, let alone being in a booth at a fancy restaurant with her. Long story short, she was used to getting excessive attention from guys all the time and that was the problem. Cloud's cold, uninterested personality was something completely alien to her. Yang had no idea how to even go about starting a conversation with him, much less becoming his friend.

_'Why is he ignoring me?'_ She thought as she looked at his hair. He eyes slowly drifted to the arm not covered in fabric, noticing it's definition. _'A muscular swordsman with really cool hair and beautiful eyes… Stop! I don't like him, he's like a new Jaune. Yeah! I tease Jaune because of the reaction I get, and to mess with Pyrrha of course. That's all I want! I'm just bored!'_ She decided to move on with the subject.

"Vivi, Garnet? What about you guys?"

"I just don't like it," Vivi answered, adjusting his hat. "It makes me all woozy."

"Oh, that's just called being drunk!" Yang countered, waving her arms in the air.

"N-no I just prefer water." Garnet said, agreeing with the mage with a smile and a nod. Yang could tell the boy was uncomfortable and left it at that, turning her attention to the conversation Nora, Ren, and Yuffie were having. Each person finally decided on a meal for themselves. As the group waited for their waiter to return, they continued their earlier conversation about the Gaian's home continent.

"Cloud and I live in Midgar," Yuffie said, "But I'm actually originally from Wutai, a settlement a ways off from Midgar. Garnet and Vivi here are from Alexandria."

"So, what are the locations like?" asked Ren as he sipped his drink.

"Midgar was a huge metropolis… and is currently being rebuilt." Everyone looked to the inside of the booth at Cloud, who returned the Beacon students' curious gazes with one of utter seriousness.

"Might we have a reason as to why?" Weiss questioned with a slightly snarky undertone.

"No." Cloud stated as he grabbed his soda and took a few gulps. The table sat in an awkward silence as everyone stared at him, waiting for something- ANYTHING- to happen.

"Cloud, can you loosen up!?" Yuffie huffed, a hint of anger in her voice. "What's your problem? You were fine earlier!" Cloud sighed. He had been thinking about his actions, especially the way he acted towards Yang, and came up with the only reason he could as to why he was acting this way.

Oddly enough, there was no reason. He looked around at the staring faces and smiled slightly, much to everyone's relief.

"Sorry. I'm just tired I guess," he apologized. "To answer your question, Weiss…" he continued, pausing briefly as his brow furrowed for a slight moment before relaxing. "It's a long, long story."

"We have time," Yang said, looking at her friends. "We haven't even gotten our food yet… and we're all really interested." Everyone shook their head, even Yuffie, who knew the story in full.

"Well… Alright. It all started with a man. I wanted to be like him, so I joined SOLDIER… I guess you could call us war buddies. We trusted each other. Until one day…"

* * *

He told them everything- about the friends that accompanied him, the burning of his home town Nibelheim, and even of JENOVA; he only left out one detail for reasons of his own. His face, for the first time since they met him, portrayed emotion- from anger to despair, he made it seem as though everyone had been there. When their food finally arrived, the mood was lightened slightly. The warm aromas of butter, garlic, and steak seasonings surrounded them and filled their senses, bringing them back from the immersive world Cloud had been portraying.

"Guess I'll save the ending of the story for dessert," Cloud smirked , watching as the waiter placed his meal before him. They ate quickly, too focused on satisfying their hunger to keep the conversation alive. Silence enveloped the table, broken only by the occasional "can you pass that" or "you have GOT to try this."

Eventually, the ravenous chewing and sawing of meat slowed to a halt. They sipped their drinks, and relaxed with satisfied sighs. Dinner had been delicious, and as they awaited the return of their waiter with a dessert menu the conversation began anew.

"Did everyone enjoy supper?" Weiss asked, receiving happy nods from everyone in response. "Good. Now you know why this place is my favorite." She smiled happily, pleased with herself before turning her attention towards the boy across from her.

"So, Cloud. I believe you promised us an ending." At Weiss' comment, Nora shot up in her seat and leaned across the table towards Cloud.

"Yeah! What about the man? What happened to him?"

"He's dead." Cloud stated bluntly, refusing to elaborate as to how. Yang sat up slightly.

"So, uh... this guy. What was his final plan?" Yang questioned hesitantly.

Cloud chuckled slightly as he placed his drink down. "To destroy the planet. Gaia is a massive continent. While some kingdoms have technology like cellular phones, others don't. Garnet's home is one of those places. When I first met Garnet, Vivi and their friends they didn't even know what had happened until we told them. And as you probably know, the intense storms over and in the seas prevented any means of contacting you guys as well. The world would have ended, and no one would have even seen it coming."

Everyone stared at Cloud in disbelief. Nora sat motionless. They were shaken. While, here, the darkness was trying to kill and take their land they never met or heard of anyone so powerful he or she could potentially destroy the planet.

"I-I guess it's good we have heroes like you overseas," Weiss complimented shakily, trying to recover from what she just heard.

Yang was still looking at Cloud, who returned the gaze. He blinked, and returned to his relaxed position in the cushioned booth.

"Cloud here tries real hard to make it seem like he's not that special," Yuffie added. "But he single handedly took the bastard out himself!"

Again, the teens across the booth gawked at him in amazement.

"How did you do-"

"I don't want to talk about it. He's gone, stowed away in my memories. I'd like to keep it that way," Cloud cut Nora off coldly, making her retreat back towards Ren.

"Can… can we at least get this guys name?" Yang softly asked. From Cloud's disposition on the entire ordeal, especially the man in the story, she knew that her question put her in treacherous waters.

Cloud sighed. He hated remembering; in fact, he despised everything about it. Remembering only kept him alive. Still, for some reason the name kept coming back. Cloud let out another heavy sigh before grabbing his drink.

"Sephiroth." Cloud spat bitterly, staring into his glass. He shrugged, "And that's it. That's the story. I hope it was entertaining enough. Midgar is in shambles, but it's getting better every day." Yang and Weiss, still shocked at all that they were hearing, nodded gently as they gave Cloud a look of endearment.

"Thank you, Cloud," Ren said before looking over to Vivi and Garnet. He wanted to learn more about this "Sephiroth" person. Who wouldn't want to know more about a man so powerful he could have potentially destroyed the planet? Instead, Ren decided to change the subject to try and lift everyone's spirits. "Now, what about you? Your home?"

Garnet and Vivi looked at each other, smiled and nodded. "Like Cloud said, we live very far away from each other, so our homes are much different, Alexandria and Lindblum." Garnet took her time to describe the region of the continent she lived in and compared it to the Midgar region in order to emphasize just how different it was. She described in vivid detail places like the Lifa Tree and Burmecia, much to the Beacon student's delight. Different people, different weapons, different styles of fighting. It didn't take her long to reach the current events, however.

"Much like Cloud's home… Alexandria was recently attacked, and is also under reconstruction."

"You don't have to continue, if the story is anything like Cloud's" Yang said, empathy in her eyes. If her story was anything like Cloud's, perhaps now wasn't the best time.

"N-no, I think this will be good for me. I think you should know."

Garnet pondered for a moment. '_Do I tell them…?_' Garnet decided against it, she'd edit the truth a bit in order to keep her identity safe.

* * *

"Our city was attacked by a summoned beast- Bahamut, the king of Dragons. Only legends spoke of people that have had the power to summon gods among men, known as Eidolons, and the Queen of Alexandria wanted to possess it. In order to do so, she used a man named Kuja to supply her with weapons. Rather, manufactured soldiers, using the mist that sprouts from the land." She closed her eyes, trying to keep calm. Cloud reached over Vivi and put his hand on her shoulder, assuring her that everything would be okay; Yuffie did the same with a concerned look.

"The Queen worked with this man, along with my mother. He supplied her with these weapons. S-she became greedy, letting darkness into her heart. She wanted to conquer places like Lindblum and Burmecia, all in the name of Alexandria… so, she did. She waged war throughout the region, slaughtering all those in her path to obtain the power of the Eidolons."

"One day, the Queen wanted to remove Kuja from the picture. She attacked him and…. She lost. My mother died along with the Queen, trying to protect her. Both were killed by Bahamut, the same creature who attempted to kill me as well."

Nora and Ren sat speechless. Yang felt tears forming. Weiss was heartbroken. Cloud also looked at Garnet; he knew some key factors that Garnet was intentionally leaving out, which he understood completely. _'Such a young girl for this.'_

Garnet acknowledged at the look Cloud was giving her. It's not everyday you're in the presence of royalty. But here, what did it matter? There were no assassins. No one knew who she was besides those who came from the Alexandria or Lindblum kingdoms. Here, should was just another regular person. Besides, she had people like Cloud, Vivi, Steiner and Zidane to count on. As Garnet looked at the four in front of her, their eyes still genuinely saddened and concerned by her story, she knew she could trust them as well. Hell, they would all find out by the combat tournament anyways! She took a deep breath, and looked up and the four teenagers in front of her.

"I apologize, I'd like to revise my story. My mother was Queen Brahne of Alexandria. I am her rightful heiress, Queen Garnet Til Alexandros XVII." Yang, Weiss, Ren and Nora's mouths dropped. Their eyes grew wide. They were having a casual dinner with a Queen.

"I, uh, well," stammered Weiss, who wasn't the only person of power at the table anymore.

"Shouldn't you have a bodyguard?" asked Yang abruptly, snapping out of her dazed stupor.

"Heh… well, see this guy right here?" she pointed to Vivi, who held his hand up proudly. "He's my bodyguard." Everyone smiled, even Cloud.

"But, yes. As of right now Alexandria is also in repair. Kuja attacked the city before he fled, trying to kill my friends and I. He's incredibly powerful," She looked down at Vivi, placing her hand on his back.

"We haven't seen or heard about him for the past few months. When we heard the storms separating our lands ceased, I headed straight for Lindblum and asked my Uncle if we could come. We just wanted to get away from it for a while."

"Yep!" exclaimed Vivi, "So us and a few of our friends decided to make the journey. Some of them stayed back home though; someone has to look after things y'know!"

"Same with some of our group," added Cloud, easing up to the rest of the party. "We expected a full house, but only a select few were able to make it. So here we are." The waiter finally returned to their table, apologizing for the wait before handing the group a dessert menu.

They were hesitant at first, their stomachs crying for mercy. After hearing Cloud's and Garnet's stories, however, they concluded the best way to lift the gloomy atmosphere was to indulge in sugary treats. It didn't take long for all eight's moods to return to normal after destroying their deserts; Nora and Yuffie bounced around in their seats as Yang tried once again to smooth talk Cloud. The bill came to the table and, after a heated debate, Weiss made sure she was one the pay.

"Way to make me feel like a true man, Snowflake," Cloud joked softly as he put his wallet away, letting a gentle grin stretch across his face as he looked at the now blushing Weiss.

"S-silence yourself! That's no way to thank me!" Weiss yelled, trying to hide her blush with an open hand. Vivi only snickered as he too put his lien back into his pocket, fist-bumping Cloud.

"Hey Spikey, what's my nickname?" Asked Yang as she leaned over the table (giving Cloud a pretty good view), jealous that Weiss received a joke AND a smile from the stoic boy while she could barely manage anything.

"Eh. I'll think about it." He replied, flashing her bright eyes and a smile. Yang's chest tightened and her heart rate spiked. _ 'Damn it, Yang! Calm down! All he did was smile! What is WRONG with you! He's the new Jaune, remember!? Do you want to date the new Jaune?!'_

Cloud took notice of her reaction. Still, for some reason he couldn't bring himself to be interested. "Is there anything else we can do before heading home?" he asked as the group packed up and left the restaurant.

"The Vale docks are beautiful at night. Follow me," Weiss answered, tugging at Cloud's one long sleeve quickly before letting go and leading the way. What Weiss thought to be subtle, however, turned out to be anything but as a pair of lilac eyes turned red for a fraction of a second.

* * *

**You'll kind of notice how each guy has two chicks stringing along... that's cause I have 4 dudes to work with, and we're dealing with teenage girls that have either never experienced "love" (Weiss, Blake, Ruby) or those who have (Yang... Yang). Steiner is old, Vivi is non-human. It'll settle out, but triangles are fun for now. **

**So yeah. Next chapter is long as dicks.**

**Next time: Amiable. The Mistral Ball!**


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